Too Far Gone?
by Havah Kinny
Summary: [Little Miss Sunshine] A week after the competition, Frank realizes exactly how deep into trouble Dwayne really is with his life, and as he tried to pull his nephew out of it, Dwayne finds himself sucked more and more into bad things and addictions. no fl
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N Ok, so this is my first Little Miss Sunshine fic, and also my first M rated fic, it is mainly for language, but also for some sexual content and derogatory remarks, now remember, some of the things that the characters say to each other are mean, that is NOT my own personal feelings, I love everyone, lol. (I said that because one of my friends thought I was gay bashing at the end of the chapter, and I'm totally not)**_

_**Love,**_

_**Havah**_

Dwayne was waiting for Olive while she had her tennis camp on the far court at the tennis club where she was playing. He sighed and sat down on the deserted bench, looking out of the glass window to watch her play. After about a minute his eyes surveyed the other players on the courts from the back to the front, and finally fell on the court directly in front of his face. While the other courts were virtually empty, or boring, this one was different. Two people were playing on it, a girl who looked about 16, about his age, and a woman who looked to be her mother. The mother served the ball hard and fast, the girl missed it. She turned her back to her mother and cursed a curse that only Dwayne saw, seeing no reaction from her mother, he realized that she had solely mouthed the word, not actually spoken it. Reading lips was one of Dwayne's stronger suits, his whole life he had been capable of it, and talented with it. He continued to focus his gaze upon the two, watching the girls every movement, and reading her every word, mostly about the game. She swore to herself when she messed up, and smiled when she got a hit in.

The girl whacked the ball a bit too hard, and it went out. **_Fuck_** she mouthed quietly. Her mom picked up the ball and served it to her. This time she returned it no problem. They played out the point, and she won. "I'm going to go get some water, ok?" The girls mom walked off of the court, and the girl went to the line to practice her serves. After a second she looked at the bench behind the glass where viewers sat, and saw only an unfamiliar boy with black hair looking out of the viewing window.

"God damnit, he's not here…again. Why am I even going out with him? He was supposed to be here at the beginning. I'll bet he has no excuse." She spoke to no one particular, then whacked the ball far too hard. Dwayne couldn't help but to wonder where this guy was that was supposedly her boyfriend. The mom came back, and the game went on.

A boy burst into the Tennis hall, and walked quickly over to the viewing area where he promptly sat down as far away from Dwayne as possible. His eyes focused on the match that the girl and her mom were playing. Dwayne saw the girl look up, her eyes rested on the boy. She muttered "that jackass" under her breath and went back to her game, but not before her eyes flitted over and rested momentarily on Dwayne. She smiled at him. The boy stood and walked over to Dwayne. He sat down right next to Dwayne, and then turned to face him. "Are you scamming on my girl?" Dwayne turned to the boy, a look of disdain on his face.

"Why the fuck would I be doing that?"

"I don't know, but you are staring at her pretty intensely." Dwayne thought: _I can't believe this is happening, this guy is so full of shit. _He looked away. "Hey, I'm talking to you!" The boy tapped Dwayne's shoulder. "Hey seriously, I really like her, I'm not here to start trouble, I'm just here to watch."

"Yeah? Well why are you so late than?" Dwayne turned again to face the boy.

"What? I'm not late!"

"Yes you are. You were supposed to be her for the entire match, and it's at least half way over now." The boy looked mildly startled.

"Hey, how did you know that? Were you talking to Melanie before she started playing?" The boy was starting to get angry again.

"No. Lip reading. Don't ask." Dwayne got up to go sit somewhere else, as this boy was bothering him, but before he got too far, he was stopped by the boys hand on his shoulder.

"Damnit, wait, can you help me?" Dwayne shook the boy off.

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because you are an asshole, I don't help assholes. Actually I don't really help anyone."

"What about your friends?" Dwayne looked at the boy, wanting to punch him in the face.

"No friends," he replied shortly. The boy looked at the girl on the courts again, his glance caught hers and she glared at him.

"Ok, let me try again. I'm Cody, that's Melanie," he gestured towards the girl. "She's my girlfriend."

"No shit."

"I am afraid that I am going to lose her because I have fucked up a lot this year. I cheated a couple of times, and she says I have a wandering eye, and that I'm narcissistic and self centered." Cody continued, ignoring Dwayne's comment. "I don't know how to deal with her, I don't know how to read her emotions, her body language, or, and this is where you could help, her lips." Cody smiled. "She talked to herself when ever she plays tennis. I want you to tell me what she's saying, and help me with her."

"What the fuck? I know nothing about girls, and I see absolutely no reason at all to help you anyway. Ever." Dwayne started walking away for the third time.

"Wait, I can pay you. $200 a week if you come every day to her daily match with her mom and tell me what she's saying and help me figure out a game plan." Dwayne stopped walking and slowly turned. He knew his family needed the money after his father lost the book deal.

"$500 or no go." Dwayne knew he was pushing it, but if this guy was as loaded as he seemed, it wouldn't be a problem for him.

"Done," Cody said after a minute of thinking. Then he put out his hand. Dwayne hesitantly shook it. "What's your name?"

"Dwayne."

"Ok Dwayne, here are some of the rules: please don't talk to Melanie, ever, she can't know what I'm doing, and I want her to think that it's me changing, not me pretending to change. Please be right here at 2 o'clock every day, and don't be late." Dwayne nodded his agreement and started walking away. He turned back momentarily.

"Oh, and by the way, she called you a jackass so you might want to work on that," he said casually over his shoulder. Then he walked on, already hating this guy. _Why would he play around with other girls if he was really so in love with this one? What a fucking jackass, paying a guy to tell him what she's thinking. _He walked to the doors that led to the court and sat on the floor waiting for Olive to finish and come out. About an hour and 400 push ups and sit ups later, she finally did.

They started walking in silence. Even though Dwayne was speaking again, he had times, especially after a long conversation, or one that made him angry, where he didn't like to talk. It was because of times like these that he still carried his notepad and a pen with him at all times. Even when he wasn't using it, it was a small comfort to him knowing that he could fall back in to the solace of silence whenever he needed to. Now he pulled the notepad from his back pocket and started scrawling a note to his sister. **HOW WAS CLASS? **

"It's camp, and it was good," she smiled, but it didn't seem real. **THEN WHY DO YOU SEEM UPSET? **Olive sighed.

"Because of you. You talk now, sure, but you are still upset, really upset. You have no friends, and the only thing that you have to do all day every day in the middle of the summer is walk me to tennis camp, wait for three hours at the tennis courts, and then walk home with me. As much as I love that, it's wrong for someone your age." Dwayne didn't know what to say, so they walked in silence again. "You know, you're nice when you aren't hating the world, you could have friends if you wanted too, but you-," Olive was cut off.

"YOU KNOW WHAT? I DON'T WANT FRIENDS OLIVE. I STILL HATE EVERYONE! JUST BECAUSE I'M TALKING AGAIN DOES NOT MEAN THAT MY COMPLETE OUTLOOK ON THE WORLD AND LIFE HAS CHANGED. SEE?" he tugged a chunk of his hair, "still black." Dwayne took a deep breath, his faced burned red from yelling. Olive looked crushed. Small tears started rolling down her cheeks and she ran from him. "Fuck," he muttered under his breath and began chasing after her. His long legs and athletic build allowed him to catch her almost right away. "Olive, look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean that I hate _you. _If I hated you would I have gotten on stage with you and mom and dad and Frank and started dancing around like a maniac?"

"I don't know, would you?" Olive turned around and hugged her brother tightly, her arms reaching only just above his waist. He reached down and picked her up.

"Come on, I'm sorry." He swung her around and onto his back and continued walking.

"Dwayne, please don't stop talking again. I missed you." Olive tightened her arms around his neck, almost choking him with affection. "I love you Dwayne."

"Yeah Olive, I know. I love you too, it's just that sometimes I don't know how to show it very well, as you know. Now if you don't mind, you're choking me." Olive loosened her grip around his neck and kissed the top of his head. He smiled and hoisted her a little higher, knowing that she was the only person that he had always cared about in his family. At times he had hated everyone else, but never Olive.

"Where the hell have you two been?" asked their mom as they walked in the door.

"Sorry. We had a slight altercation on the way home, but it's ok now," Dwayne said as he let Olive slide down his back. He walked to the back end of the house towards the room that he shared with Uncle Frank. "Fuck" he said as he walked in.

"What is it this time?" asked Uncle Frank.

"I made Olive cry." Dwayne flopped down on his bed and kicked off his shoes.

"Well I guess you can't always be nice, it's not in your nature."

"Thanks for the words of encouragement." Dwayne closed his eyes to blink back a single tear. When he opened his eyes, his gaze fell on the poster above his bed from the Air Force. He stood and tore it down angrily. Six days ago he thought that his dream was within his reach, now it was just that, chimerical, just a fantasy. He walked up to his wall and slammed his fist hard against it until it started bleeding freely.

"Still upset I see, I know what it's like to have your dreams stolen right out from under you by a Proust- I mean I know what it's like to have your dreams crushed." Uncle Franks moved to sit next to where Dwayne had just collapsed on his bed. He put his hand on Dwayne's shoulder.

"Don't fucking touch me." Dwayne pulled away quickly.

"You know that's your problem Dwayne."

"You don't have any clue about my problems. What the fuck do you think is my problem?" Dwayne folded his arms across his chest and glared at his uncle.

"You won't get close to anyone, you won't let anyone touch you or comfort you except for Olive. You push everyone away. You see, I didn't feel loved, and I tried to kill myself. You are afraid to feel loved, so you reject all of the people that may care for you, and the ones you care for, except for your sister." Frank blinked.

"Don't pretend to be my shrink, you're lucky to even be here."

"Remember, I failed to kill myself, I didn't want to be here, meaning I wasn't lucky but now I am."

"Now you want to be here?"

"Yeah."

"Why? Why would you want to be here with your sister and her fucking demented family?"

"Because I think that we can help each other. You see I figure you and I are kind of in the same boat. We have both had our dreams taken from us, we both push love away because we are afraid, and neither of us have ever fucked a woman," Frank said nonchalantly.

"Speak for yourself fag."


	2. Chapter 2

**_A/N Ok, so here is Chapter 2 of my Little Miss Sunshine fanfiction. For the person who reviewed, thanks and I'm going to throw this up there, this story is not a clean story, and it's not my fault. I was hanging out with friends who talk alightly dirty, and then bam, my characters have major problems. Please do not get mad and say that this is unrealistic, because it probably is. I am working on another Little Miss Sunshine fanfiction that I will wait to post until I get a little farther with this one, but it's going to be very different. Please don't hate me._**

**_Love,_**

**_Havah_**

"Wait, wait, but in the car the other day you told Grandpa that you weren't getting any." Frank looked at Dwayne, confused about his latest statement.

"Well what would you expect, my fucking parents were in the car." Dwayne stood up and walked towards the back of the room.

"So are you using protection?"  
"Duh, I'm not that stupid."

"Ok, so you have like one partner right? Girlfriend or something."

"Fuck no."

"Well, I guess that you didn't really need your grand dads advice at all."

"Nope, guess not." Dwayne stood up on his bed, and opened the lower part of one of the windows that were behind him. He then lifted himself through it with great ease, and shut it. Frank, watching him in mild dismay before doing roughly the same thing, with a little less grace and ease.

Dwayne walked to the Starbucks nearest to his house. "Grande Coffee, black, are you almost off?"

"Ok, the coffee is coming right up, and you should know I'm off in ten minutes, wait out front, I'll be there." The Barista smiled, and Dwayne took his coffee and her instructions, and waited outside drinking his coffee. The caffeine from the coffee gave him the rush that he needed to get up the courage to feed what had quickly become an addiction to him. It was Joanna, who worked at Starbucks, on Mondays. She was 17, so it was legal, and Britta who worked at Safeway on Fridays. Now Britta was 19, so he was jailbait for her, and she liked that, she liked living on the illegal side.

"So, when did you start speaking again?" asked Joanna when she came out. She was untying her apron, and stuffed it into her shoulder bag. "I mean, we've been screwing for 11 months, 9 of which you have been silent, and now you're all of a sudden speaking again, honey, what's up?" She caught a sad look on Dwayne's face.

"I'm not you're fucking honey, just let it go. Let's just get this done, ok?" They started walking towards her place.

"So let me get this right. You sleep around with two women every week in the middle of the day, you have been for 11 months, and your family is clueless?"

"No, my uncle knows." Dwayne walked, his hands stuffed in the pockets of his corduroy pants.

"He knows that you are addicted to having women and he hasn't told you parents?"

"He doesn't know that I'm addicted, god, you and Britta are the only two people that know that part. He just knows that I fool around with multiple people sometimes. Now can you please stop fucking with my conscience? My life is shit right now, I don't need this."

"Wanna talk about what's bothering you?"

"God damn it, you know what? Just shut up. We aren't friends, and we aren't going out, we just use each other, and I would walk away from you right now if I didn't need this, and you would let me, except you need this too, so let's just go and get it fucking finished with!" They walked on in silence to her house and went up to her room. She locked the door. 15 minutes later Dwayne walked out of her room, pulling his shirt over his head as he went. He opened the front door to her house and headed outside.

"15 minutes, wow." Dwayne whirled around and found himself face to face with his uncle.

"Yeah, I'm fast, so what?" Dwayne shrugged and kept walking.

"Either that or your problems extend way further then being color blind and hating the world."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Shooting a look that would have made a braver man then Frank cringe, Dwayne spoke.

"It means that I think you are a sex-aholic." Frank spoke with determination and triumph.

"What? That's crazy."

"Why else would you go for a cup of coffee, grab a chick, do the dirty for half of her 30 minute break, and then leave with absolutely no backward glances or thought. It's because you know you're getting some again really soon, because you need it, because you are addicted."

"Yeah? So what, you're suicidal."

"True enough, true enough." Frank shrugged. "So I think you need help."

"And you don't?" Dwayne was getting past frustration and in to anger now.

"I didn't say that. I am getting help because it is clear that I need it. You should do the same."

"I am getting help, in fact, I just came out of a session!"

"That's what you call help? Getting busy for 15 minutes? You really do need help!" Frank looked at Dwayne with a look of the utmost disgust on his face. He knew that his nephew was important to him, and that they had had a bond, but he was willing to lose Dwayne's trust in order to keep him safe. But for the time being, he wasn't even sure what that would entitle.

"Ok, good for you, now will you just stay out of my fucking personal life? PERSONAL, that means it's my business! Mine." Dwayne started walking quickly, but Frank ran to catch up.

"Nymphomania is a psychological problem Dwayne! It's not like you're screwing someone you actually care about! Actually it's virtually the complete and total opposite!" Frank yelled, and everyone within the near vicinity started staring at him. A mother with a small child glared at him, and apologized silently.

"You fucker, nymphomaniacs are girls! Besides, you just said that really, really loudly, and now everyone is staring out you." Dwayne rolled his eyes and sighed. He was used to Frank understanding him, and though they had only really known each other about a week, he was disappointed. Worry was also growing inside him, he was beginning to think that Frank was going to tell his mom, or Richard, and that would completely throw his life, everything would change, and not for the better, no. He would just have to hope that Frank kept his mouth shut. Dwayne started walking very quickly towards the house, soon he broke into a run. He didn't feel right having Frank know about this. It had never bothered him before to have this problem, but it was bothering him now.

He flew through the front door, and didn't stop even when Olive asked him what was wrong. He ended up in the bathroom. Suddenly he felt dirty, he took off his clothes and got into the shower. Always, well at least for the last 11 months, he had known that it was wrong what he was doing, but never before had he cared. He always made sure to shower afterwards, but usually it was just regime. This time, he felt that washing himself would wash away everything that his uncle had said, but as the water poured over him, he realized that it wasn't going to change anything. Thoughts ran through his head, everything that had happened, he wondered what was going to happen. For the first time he wanted to fix this, because he wanted to protect Olive from finding out things about him that would forever change her mind about him.

_God damnit, I thought that this was just going to stay easy. I never thought that anything else could come of it, let alone would. Now fuck it, I have two things that I have to do. _He got out of the shower, and went into his room. He tried his best to not think of anything disturbing anymore, but he couldn't think of anything else. _Why did this have to start now? As if I'm not having trouble enough trying to find another way to fly, now I have to find a way to fix myself up. _He fell onto his bed with his book, but he was just staring at it, it wasn't until he actually tried to read a word at least 2 minutes later that he even realized he was holding it upside down.


	3. Chapter 3

Dwayne didn't eat his dinner that night. The one piece of chicken that he did take to please his mother sat all alone next to the half of a corn cob. At one point, he picked up the corn and started pulling each little kernel off and dropping them on his plate one by one. "Dwayne, you've hardly touched your food," Richard pointed out

"No, I've touched it all, I'm just not hungry." Dwayne glared at Richard for a moment, daring him to say anything else. When he didn't, he got up from the table, and left. His family looked around at each other.

"Oh god. I thought that we had finally started figuring things out with him. Ok, who's going to go talk to him?" asked Sheryl.

"He's your son," said Richard, picking up his chicken and taking a bite.

"That maybe true, but you have to think about the fact that he is a teenaged boy who needs a father. Without a father he won't have the guidance that he needs. Maybe _you _should try talking to him once in awhile; you give him nothing of what he needs."

"Yeah, well he's not my kid; he doesn't want anything to do with me!"

"Well I'm sorry about that, but when you married me you knew that he was part of this, a big part of it." Sheryl looked intensely at Richard. She knew that most of the reason why Dwayne was the way he was had all been a cause of his parents divorcing when he was too young to remember, and he never really had a father. When Richard married Sheryl, he had never given Dwayne much more then being civil with him. As Sheryl and Richard fought, Frank and Olive looked at each other, then stood and walked back to Dwayne and Frank's room. When they entered, they found him lying face down on his bed, not moving at all.

"Dwayne? What's wrong? I thought you were ok," Olive asked. She received no answer. "Dwayne, come on. We're your family." She walked over to him and sat on the foot of his bed. He still refused to acknowledge that she was there.

"Come on, your mom and Richard are fighting again. Everything was fine, and now it's not, and I think that you could fix it." Frank sat down on the roll away bed that had been put into the room for him. Dwayne still remained motionless and speechless.

"Dwayne, are you asleep? Are you alive? Please move." Olive started sounding slightly worried. She climbed up and sat in the curve of his back, knowing that would get at least some movement out of him. "Come on, talk to me!"

"Oh fuck, will you get of my back?" Dwayne turned over slowly turned over, and Olive slid off of him and onto the bed, shortly followed by a slow tumble on to the floor.

"What happened to the Dwayne from California? The one who was dancing around and happy?" she asked him.

"He's gone," Dwayne said after a pause. "Just because I let loose once to protect you doesn't mean that I am completely happy again." Olive pulled herself up and sat next to him on his bed. "It's complicated, but on the way there and stuff so many things in my life that I had taken for granted changed, and I don't know if you understand, you may be too young still, but it's hard, really hard." Dwayne sighed.

"I know what he means. I think he's feeling roughly the same way that I did when I tried-…" Frank coughed and cleared his throat. "When I had my accident, that is."

"You mean Dwayne is going to kill himself!" Olive's eyes grew wide with shock and fear.

"Nice Frank, really smooth. No, I'm not going to try to kill myself; I'm handling things a little differently." Dwayne shot a nasty look at his uncle for frightening Olive. "I'm not going anywhere, not yet. I wouldn't leave alone with Mom, Frank and Richard now that your grandpa's gone." Dwayne hugged Olive. It was a limp hug, but none the less it was the gesture that counted.

"Hey what's wrong with me? I'm fine!" protested Frank.

"Don't even get me started on why I wouldn't leave Olive alone with you."

"And don't get me started on all of your problems," retorted Frank.

"Wait, what's wrong with Dwayne?" asked Olive, she was suddenly confused.

"Well he-…" Frank started to speak, but Dwayne cut him off before he could give away anything that would comprise Dwayne's integrity in the eyes of Olive.

"I have a lot of anger right now, well I always have, but more so now because of the whole discovering that I'm color blind thing. I'll be fine eventually, it just make take a little while." Olive hugged Dwayne tightly, and he kissed her lightly on the top of her head. "It's going to be fine, now why don't you go out, tell mom that I'm fine, and finish your dinner." Olive gave him a final squeeze, and ran out to finish her food. "What the hell is wrong with you? You know that you can't tell her about my addiction! She's 7 years old!" Dwayne whispered harshly to Frank.

"I know that, I wasn't going to. Who was that girl anyway?" Frank asked,

"Joanna, she works at Starbucks, she's just some girl with the same problems as me, we help each other out." Dwayne sounded incredibly un-phased about this considering that she was clearly helping him out, just as he was helping her.

"Yeah, and who are the others?" asked Frank.

"There is only one other, this girl Britta at Safeway." Dwayne lay back on his bed face down to show his uncle that he didn't want to talk anymore.

"Ok, suit yourself. I was just thinking that it might be nice for you to find someone who you actually care about, and someone who cares enough about you to help you." Frank left the room and Dwayne flipped back over to prevent himself from suffocating. Taking a deep breath, he cursed the day he's discovered his addiction. It had been almost a year, and it had been hard for a bit. After awhile, he had managed to find two girls in the same area that he lived in with the exact same problem. Both of them had been looking for someone exactly like him, someone who would feed their addiction and expect nothing else. Not a friend ship, and absolutely not a relationship. The rest of it had been easy, same time, same day of the week every week, always at the girl's houses because neither had any siblings, and both had parent's who worked all day. He sighed. It was amazing how just one indiscretion, one night could change everything in his life, one girl, one feeling. He closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep.


	4. Chapter 4

When he heard Uncle Frank coming back into the room to go to sleep, Dwayne rolled over and faced the wall away from his uncle. "I know you aren't asleep." Dwayne said nothing. "Fine, you don't have to talk to me, but I know you're awake."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night Frank." Dwayne got up and walked over to his dresser. He pulled out a red shirt and pair of boxer shorts that read SAVE PLUTO. He changed into them, and went back to his bed. He pulled down the covers, and then lifted them up over his head even though it was one of the hottest nights that summer. He tried to sleep, but considering the days events he couldn't at first. Eventually, he fell in to a half sleep, and everything that had happened that day, everything that his Uncle, Olive, Joanna and everyone else had said kept playing over and over again in his mind. Suddenly it became too much, and he woke up with a start, sweating. Silently he got up and pulled a pair of sweatpants on over his boxers. He tugged on a pair of socks and shoes, and went out of his bedroom window again, being as quiet and careful as he could.

Once he was out, he walked over to a park. This was his midnight refuge when he felt that he needed to be completely alone. He sat on a bench in the middle of the park, feeling the summer breeze blowing his hair slightly, he already felt a little more comfortable. Was it an hour? Or only five minutes that he sat there, completely blank, nothing at all was going through his head, and he felt complete bliss when it was like that. "Hey, do I know you from somewhere?"

"HOLY FUCK!" Dwayne jumped about a foot in the air.

"God, no need to freak out on me." Dwayne found himself standing face to face with Cody's girlfriend Melanie.

"Well it's nit nice to sneak up on people you don't know and scaring the shit out of them." Dwayne was angry. This was supposed to be his time to be alone, his time to have nothing bothering him, and she had ruined that. Now he would never be able to sleep that night and he knew it.

"Sorry, I just, I just recognized you from the tennis courts, and I though that I would come and see if you were ok, seeing as not too many people spend the early morning hours sitting on park benches. I can go if you want."

"Please do," Dwayne stood up looked at her. She looked surprised that he didn't want her to stay.

"Ok then, well, I'm Melanie." she was confused about this boy. She knew she was gorgeous, and until now, she had never met a guy who didn't want her.

"Honestly, I don't give a fuck." She looked at him strangely and then walked away. He sat back down, angry at himself for even saying a word to her, no matter how cruel. She was the kind of person that he had been told again and again to avoid, so that's just what he intended to do. He didn't care how pretty her blue eyes were, or how perfectly her smile went with her shiny blonde hair and well put together facial features. Dwayne stretched his long legs out in front of him and slouched lower on to the bench, sitting there for about ten minutes. Then he realized that this was going nowhere, his peace had been robbed from him by that little princess. He walked back home and crawled back through his bedroom window. There he ended up looking straight into his uncle's eyes.

"Twice in one day, wow. I must say that I expected you to have slightly more self control then that." Dwayne sat on his bed as his uncle chastised him.

"It's not what you think; I was just out clearing my head in the park."

"Ok, but that still means that you were outside past curfew." Frank looked at him seriously. "Are you looking to get arrested Dwayne? Or do you just like breaking the law?"

"Oh fuck you. What are you going to do? Tell mom and that man Olive calls father?" Dwayne was still unhappy, and his uncle was not helping at all.

"Dwayne, you are seriously fucked up. If you aren't willing to try and help yourself then I may _have _to intervene." Frank looked seriously at his nephew.

"Intervene how?" Dwayne was a little frightened, but he tried his hardest not to show it. He took of the sweatpants, and crawled back under the covers, this time he pulled them only up to his waist. He and his uncle weren't through conversing yet.

"I don't know. I could tell your mother, or I could try to get you a therapist, would you be willing to see a therapist Dwayne? I wouldn't have to tell anyone, I have a good one myself, so I can have you go and see him, and we can get your real father's permission if that would be better."

"I don't want to see a therapist, just give me a couple weeks; I'm going to try to fix this on my own, don't tell anyone just yet, ok?" Dwayne's voice softened as he knew that Frank meant business. He knew that he was going to try to fix things, he just doubted that he's be able to. He looked into his uncles eyes, and he saw that Frank really was trying to help him.

"I can do that, yeah, but I really do think that you should change this behavior around. Think about Olive. When she finds out, and eventually, she will find out, you are going to lose her forever as a sister. She can't look up to a brother who has a problem like yours." Frank stared at Dwayne hard.

"I know, I know but its so fucking hard, you don't understand. I am going to try, I really am, I really am." Dwayne sighed, he buried his head in his hand. Frank got into his bed, and immediately fell asleep. The last gestures from Dwayne had assured him that he really was going to try and turn things around. On the other side of the room, Dwayne lay looking up at the ceiling. He waited until he was positive that his uncle was asleep, and then he let loose. Tears fell down his cheeks and dripped onto to his red shirt. For a few minutes he stayed like that, just crying in the dark about his own faults, and how they were tearing his family apart. Then he got up and turned his bedside lamp on. He pulled a piece of lined paper and a pen out from his desk, and started writing. Roughly thirty minutes later he took the paper, put it under his pillow, shut of his light, and fell in to a restless, nightmare filled sleep.

He didn't wake up the next morning until almost noon. When he finally tumbled out of bed, he walked into the kitchen. When he looked at the digital clock on the microwave, he was quite shocked, his family never let him sleep past in the summer, and not past 11 on the weekends. "Why didn't anyone wake me up?" Dwayne asked Olive.

"Uncle Frank said that you weren't feeling good last night and to let you sleep. Mom was going to wake you up if you were still out at one though. How are you feeling?" Dwayne grabbed a breakfast bar from the box in the cupboard and sat sideways in one of the chairs at the table. Olive sat down in the one next to him, and looked up at him.

"I'm fine." He just sat there, eating his breakfast, and staring blankly at the wall on the opposite side of the room. Since he wasn't making much conversation, Olive got up and walked back in to her room. A few minutes later, Sheryl walked into the room.

"Oh honey, hey, how are you feeling?" she asked and walked over to him.

"Oh, I'm fine, a lot better now actually." Dwayne forced a small smile on to his face. "Just a little tired still."

"Ok, well if you don't feel up to taking Olive to tennis today I think it could be arranged for one of us to get her there."

"No, no I'll be fine by then, I'll take her." Dwayne knew that he had to be the one taking her, simply because he had to meet up with that bastard Cody. After breakfast, he walked into the bathroom, showered, brushed his teeth, then he got dressed for the day and read until it was time to get going.


	5. Chapter 5

At 2 o'clock, just as Cody had said to be, Dwayne was sitting just where he had been the day before. Unlike yesterday however, Cody was on time for Melanie's match. At first Dwayne didn't acknowledge him, but a few minutes later Cody walked over to him. "Is she talking to her mom?" he asked.

"Yeah, she is." Dwayne was short in his reply. "She's glad that you're here, though I can't imagine why, you seem like a jerk to me." Cody glared at him.

"Ok, I'm going to over look that because I need you. So here's the deal, you tell me everything that she says, and if you can think of a way to help me with it if it's a fault, tell me." Dwayne just looked at him for a moment, then started to watch Melanie again.

"Ok, well she's saying something along the lines of 'I wish Cody were more considerate of my feelings, especially when it comes to things that I am passionate about.' So basically, you need to start caring more about the things she likes, so what does she like? Other then tennis…" Dwayne trailed off.

"Uh, well she likes shopping, and movies with Orlando Bloom, and music by um, Panic! At the Disco, Fallout Boy, the Killers, Maroon 5, you know stuff like that." Dwayne looked blankly at him. He had never heard of any of those groups.

"Well then start taking interest. Go shopping with her, I know that's going to me painful, but it's a good idea, make sure that when you have her over for a movie next time its something with that dude in it, and start listening to her music, so that you can talk about it with her. It will make her feel like you really care about, although it's mildly clear to me that you really don't care about her personality, you like her body." Dwayne knew that he was really chewing this guy out, but it was fun, so he didn't stop.

"I guess that doesn't sound too hard. Oh, what's she saying now?" Dwayne looked down and studied her lip movements carefully, then he started laughing. "What? What is it!"

"She thinks you're cheating on her, are you?"

"Well, maybe I did once or twice…" Dwayne looked at him skeptically.

"It's ok though, cause she is cheating on you too, or at least she's thinking about it." This Dwayne was assessing not from her lips, but from her actions.

"What do you mean? How do you know that, she didn't her mom that she was cheating on me did she?" Cody sounded a little worried.

"Why? Worried that some other guy is getting some and you aren't? Anyway, she bats her eyelashes at any guy she sees. She knows that she has the looks and the body, and she's using. Also, she is not used to being rejected, and she is a girl who wants what she can't have." Dwayne sighed, hoping Cody wouldn't ask how Dwayne knew all of that, because that would completely compromise their partnership.

"How do you know that? If she always gets her men how can she even want what she can't have because she can have anything, or anyone."

"No everyone…"

"What are you trying to say? That's she's scamming on some other guy who won't give her the time of day?" Cody sounded really lost now.

"Yes, that's exactly what I'm trying to say."

"Who is this guy? I need to talk to him and tell him to stay away from my girl!" Cody got angry suddenly.

"Trust me, he's trying to stay away from her as it is, roughing with him would probably just make him go for her for the simply reason of pissing you off. He's not going for her now, just leave it alone." Cody seemed to take that very well, and sat back watching her for a minute. Then he turned to Dwayne again.

"Wait a minute, I doubt that she's saying that to her mother, so how do you know about this other guy?"

_Fuck, _thought Dwayne. _What should I tell him? That she was basically stalking me? Or that I simply saw her while I was out walking hitting on some guy that told her to piss off? _"I just saw her in the park last night hitting on some guy, and he just told her to get lost." As the tennis match wore on, Dwayne realized that he was becoming more then a translator to this guy, he was coaching him on how to keep his girlfriend. During a time when Melanie was concentrating on the game, Cody leaned over to Dwayne.

"What do you know about foreplay?" asked Cody. Dwayne looked at him.

"Absolutely nothing."

"Oh, so you have never done the dirty deed yet?" asked Cody in an almost mocking manner.

"Whoa, wait, I never said that, I just said that I knew nothing of foreplay." Dwayne's mouth twisted into a slightly crooked smile.

"Ok, I'm confused now, but I really don't think that I want to know anyway." Cody looked at Dwayne in a confused and a little bit disgusted manner. Dwayne just smiled. They kept watching, and finally Melanie and her mother finished playing. Cody went to go meet them and talk to her, Dwayne just sat there watching them. Melanie excused herself to go to the bathroom just as Dwayne left the viewing area to go and get Olive. He ran into her in the hallway, she was standing in a corner, her back facing the hall, her face looking at the wall. After watching her for a minute, Dwayne knew what was going on.

"Does your boyfriend know?" he asked her. She turned quickly.

"Well I guess it's your right to scare the shit out of me." Melanie avoided his question.

"You didn't answer me. Does your boyfriend know?" he asked again.

"Know what?"

"Know that you shoot up in the hallways at the local tennis clubs because the bathrooms are full of young children." Dwayne looked at her intently.

"Listen, I don't know what you're talking about, I'm just taking a breather for a minute, is that so wrong?"

"You can't fool me, now I won't tell anyone, that's your job, but if he can't tell, he's no good for you. If he really loved you he'd be trying to help you." Dwayne walked away before she could respond. Melanie stared after him in shock. No one else had ever caught her before, this was a completely abandoned hallway, so what was he doing down there anyway? _I'll bet he's following me. _She thought to herself, wondering why he could possibly be doing that if he wasn't interested in her at all, which he clearly wasn't after his display last night.

That day as she walked with Cody, her mother took the car and drove home, she wanted to ask him if he had noticed anything strange, but she didn't want to tell him, not yet. He kept looking at her. She looked just fine to him, except he could tell that something was bothering her. "Mel, what's up? Is something wrong, or are you just tired from playing?" he asked, trying to sound concerned.

"Oh, nothing, I'm just thinking about…" she paused for a moment. "I'm just thinking about stuff, you know?"

"Like what stuff?"

"Can I ask you something?" she ignored his question.

"Sure you can babe, anything."

"Is there something wrong with me? Is there anything about me that any guy would find un-attractive?"

"No, of course not." His eyes grew narrow and he saw that Dwayne was right. "I think you are perfect, and you know that. Why would it matter what other guys think anyway? Is there someone else?" He knew he was pushing it, but he didn't care.

"No, no, of course not, I was just making sure that you still thought that I was everything you wanted, you seem to be getting distant."

"Yeah, I know, I'm working on fixing that though. You know, everything's just been a hassle, football and everything like that has been getting to me. Not a lot of sleep…" Melanie smiled.

"That's understandable. Cheerleading can do that to me sometimes, but we don't really have practices yet, they start next month, as you know I've just been doing the tennis to stay in shape." Their conversation continued like that until they reached her house. "I have to go take a shower and change, if you just wait here until I get done we can go get some food or something, ok?" Cody nodded, sat down on her couch, and turned the TV on as she went upstairs.

_Who is this other boy? He's everywhere that I am, and he can already tell more about me then most people, why do I feel like this? I feel like I actually want someone to care about me, to care about my drug problems. Cody doesn't do that because he doesn't notice. I need him to notice that I need help, to try and help me. _Melanie went into her own private bathroom, and turned her shower on, feeling suddenly different about things. _What is this feeling? I can't be falling for this other boy, I don't even know his name. Besides, he's a jack ass! On the other hand, he sees things that no one else can see about me, he could help me, if he wanted to, which he doesn't. _She sighed and let the water run too hot, burning her shoulders as it went.

Dwayne and Olive walked home, Olive babbling about the other girls in her camp, Dwayne smiling and nodding as she spoke, but his mind was elsewhere. _How could this guy possibly not know that his girlfriend was on drugs? It's so obvious! _"Oh, Olive hold on a sec, I need to do something really fast." Dwayne sprinted across the street, over to a bright blue post box and dropped something inside, then he went back to Olive. "Ok, keep talking." The rest of the week continued in roughly the same manner. On Thursday night, once Dwayne was asleep, Uncle Frank looked over at him, and smiled a knowingly wicked smile.


	6. Chapter 6

"Hello, Britta?"

"Yeah?" A girl stocking cans of soup at Safeway turned to see a middle aged man with brown hair a slight beard talking to her.

"You know Dwayne Hoover, right?"

"Yeah, so?"

"I need you to do me a favor concerning him." Britta turned and faced the man, looking bored.

"Like what?"

"You need to stop screwing him."

"Why would I do that?" Oh, let's see, maybe because he's under age, and because he has a problem that he needs to fix.

"So? Who are you to butt in on his life like that?"

"I'm his family, so just stop, ok?"

"What if I don't?" she asked, testing the man's nerve.

"I will report you to the police and you will get arrested." The man looked at her determinedly. Britta tossed the thought around in her head, weighing the consequences of both. On one hand, she was sure that she could find someone else anyway. On the other hand it was simple, Dwayne was flat out good by now, and she liked him.

"Fine, but it's going to cost you."

"That's just what Joanna said." The man pulled out his wallet and wrote a check for $200. "Will that be sufficient?" Britta looked at the check, knowing that it was more then she made on a regular basis. She nodded and took the check. Frank walked away, smiling at his accomplishment. He had single handedly stopped the two girls Dwayne was using from helping him out, now he would have to find another way around things. He went home, feeling genuinely accomplished.

Dwayne stopped off at Starbucks before going to Safeway, and got his necessary cup of coffee. Then he walked on to the Safeway where Britta worked. He meandered around the store looking for her, finally finding her down the dairy isle checking out inventory. "Hey," he said casually as he walked up behind her. She turned to look at him.

"Since when do you talk?" she asked him.

"About a week ago, it doesn't really matter though. You're off in 10 minutes though, right?" he asked.

"Yeah, but I'm busy after."

"Wait, I thought…"

"Yeah, well you thought wrong. You're out Dwayne, I've got to stop screwing around with you, you didn't tell me that your family knew about us, and that they clearly don't approve!"

"Ok, what the hell are you- oh my god, Frank. Fuck." It clicked suddenly.

"Yeah, so I'll see you around, ok?" Britta turned back to her work, and Dwayne walked away. He understood that his uncle was only doing what needed to be done, but it still pissed him off. Not knowing where else to go, he simply went home, not feeling too good about everything or anything at all for that matter.

"Where have you been?" asked his mom when he walked in.

"I just went out to go get some coffee, why?" He looked at her, and she didn't appear to be pleased with him at all. Frank was nowhere to be seen, and Dwayne was hoping that he hadn't said anything about Joanna and Britta.

"Earlier I got a call from your father Dwayne. He says that he is flying up tomorrow to present a custody case. If I refuse to relinquish custody, he is going to take me to court." Sheryl looked really upset about this. "Are you really that unhappy here with us?" Dwayne sighed. His father had gotten his letter obviously, and he was actually taking action to help his son for the first time in his life.

"Yeah, I am. Richard is a fucking jackass. You've seen how he looks at me, and heard how he talks to me. He hates me, and you know it, he can't wait for me to get out of here. Why not just let me go?" Dwayne stared at Sheryl.

"It's not that easy honey. Dwayne, Richard doesn't hate you, he just…"

"HE HATES ME! You know it, he wishes that you'd never had me, doesn't he." Sheryl sat down on the couch, and motioned for Dwayne to sit in the armchair across from her, but he opted to remain standing.

"I need you Dwayne, I really do need you. You have lived with me for 15 years and I have gotten used to that. Please honey, stay." Sheryl was crying now.

"That's what you need, but I need a father who doesn't hate me, a father who actually cares about me. If you want to take this to court, fine by me, you can't win. Dad has a lot of money, which means a good lawyer, and he has the subject of custody," Dwayne gestured to himself, "on his side. You can't win."

"You really want to go and live with someone who you have only seen for one week every year?" Dwayne nodded, his glare fierce and his mind made up.

"Well what about Olive." Sheryl played the card that she knew would have the most effect on him. "You can't take her grandfather and her brother from her in the same year. You know that she will be worse off if you leave. She needs someone to look up to, and trust me, lets hope that's not Richard, me, or Uncle Frank."

"I would am a shitty role model for her! I am way too fucked up. I have too many problems! It's unfair of you to ask me to be here for her always just because you and that fucking husband of yours can't!" Dwayne screamed at the top of his lungs, his turning bright red with indignation. He ran in to his room before his mother could pull Olive in to this anymore then she already has.

Luckily for him, his uncle was out for now, so he had the place to himself. Anger consumed him, and blinded him. Everything was clouded by his hatred for the moment that the only thing he could think of to do to release his anger was punch the wall until he re-opened the fist that had bled earlier that week, as well as opening the other one. Once both hands were bleeding, he went to his bed, and sat down, just staring at them for a moment. _Oh my god, I can't so this anymore. This fucking family is killing me! I gotta get out of this place! _He stood up, and crawled through his window, running to the park to seek refuge, blood still dripping from his knuckles. He tried to outrun his thoughts, his feelings and his emotions, but instead he ended up running into someone, Melanie. "I'm sorry, I didn't see you. You should have been paying attention though…" he said.

"Oh, I was. I knew you were coming, I didn't move on purpose. You look upset. What's eating at you?"

"Just leave me the fuck alone." He tried to push past her, but she grabbed one of his hands.

"Oh my god, you're bleeding! Here, let me clean this up, we are only a block from my house and I have a first aid kit in the bathroom." She pulled him towards her house, and suddenly he didn't have the energy to fight back.


	7. Chapter 7

Dwayne allowed Melanie to take him in the front door of her house, up the stairs, and into her bathroom. She told Dwayne to sit on the edge of the bath tub, which he did, while she wet a wash cloth and poured some liquid soap onto it. "Ok, I won't lie to you; this is really going to hurt." Dwayne just looked at the floor as she took his hand. He was regretting ever letting her being him here.

"HOLY FUCK!" He yelled and jumped up, pulling his hand away from her as she touched the wash cloth to it.

"I told you it was going to hurt. You really busted your knuckles open; I've never seen anything quite like it. Now give me back your hand, trust me. This is a lot better then letting them get infected, now that would really hurt." Gingerly, Dwayne let her take his hand again, and she started to clean it gently. He winced, but tried to keep his mouth shut. "What happened anyway?" she asked him.

"Nothing, I just got angry."

"You did this to yourself?" Melanie sounded shocked.

"Sort of, yeah, I guess technically I was driven to it."

"Wow, what's going on that caused you to do something this painful to yourself?" Melanie finished cleaning the blood off of his left hand and moved on to his right.

"I wrote a letter to my dad in Florida saying that I was unhappy with my living situation here, and he is taking my mom to court for custody. My mom wants me to stay here though, and I told her that I don't want to, and she got upset, and played my little sister as her card. I blew a fuse and you know the rest…" Even though it was the truth, he didn't feel like telling Melanie, but she was helping him, and he felt it his duty.

"Ouch, that's rough. So do you like, well do you have to go to court with them?" she asked.

"Yeah, I suppose I do, but I'm hoping that my mom will just have enough sense to let me go and to avoid the court thing. She can't win. My dad has a lot of money and a great lawyer lined up, so she's just going to lose anyway." Dwayne sighed. He didn't understand his mother's logic on not just giving him up right away.

"I'm really sorry that things have to be like this for you right now. If there's anything that I can do to help, you will let me know, right?" Melanie looked at him meaningfully.

"Uh, why the fuck would I do that?" Dwayne was really confused by this girl, and decided that he just didn't care about her at all, no matter how much she liked him.

"Perhaps because it's clear that you don't have anyone to talk to about this? If you had any friends, then you would be there right now, talking to them, instead of here with me." She finished cleaning his hands, and tossed the bloody wash cloth into her bath tub. Then she went to the cover and took out a first aid kit. Melanie poured antiseptic onto the bandages, and then wrapped his knuckles for him. It stung, but he just bit down on his lip and ignored it. "Is that better?" she asked.

"Yeah, I guess so. Thanks?" Dwayne started to head towards the door; he didn't know where he was going to go, but it wasn't going to be home. _This is where friends would come in handy, and then I would have a place to go. _

"Wait, are you going home? It's getting late." Dwayne checked his watch and saw that she was right, it was almost 9.

"No, I dunno where I'm going. Just somewhere I guess. Why the fuck should you care?" Dwayne turned and looked at her, wondering why she cared about where he was going in the first place.

"Well, did you ever think that maybe I want to be your friend?" asked Melanie.

"Why would anyone want to be my friend? I don't do anything to make people like me." Dwayne was quite confused.

"I don't know, I just like you, I guess that I like the fact that you noticed my problems and pointed them out to me. For the first time I felt like someone cared about me enough to try and help me out." Melanie smiled at him.

"Then you were, and are, sadly mistaken. I don't care about you enough to help you. In fact, I really don't care about you at all. I'm sure that you are used to being adored, but it just doesn't work that way for me. Sorry." He turned and kept walking.

"Wait. What if I were to tell you that maybe I care about you as more then just a potential friend. What if I were to tell you that I think I'm in love with you?" Melanie looked at him seductively, and he whirled around, speechless. She walked up to him, and kissed him.

"What the fuck was that?" he pulled away from her, looking at her in both a shocked and disgusted manner. Melanie just pulled him to her and kissed him again. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and he wrapped his around her lower waist. Together they went through the door adjoining her bathroom to her bedroom. "Wait, what about your parents?" Dwayne asked as Melanie started to take his shirt off.

"They aren't coming home until tomorrow night."

"Ok, good." This was the first time in almost a year where there had been anything other than getting straight down to business. But if that's how Melanie worked, then that's how she worked.

"Wow. Well, that was interesting, coming from someone who doesn't care about me." Melanie leaned over to Dwayne and placed her hand on his chest, smiling.

"Get the fuck away from me." He pushed her away.

"What? What do you mean?" Melanie was shocked at his reaction to her.

"You don't understand, I'm sick, really, really sick." He stood up and started pulling his clothes back on.

"What are you talking about?" Melanie rose to Dwayne's level and started putting on her pajamas.

"I, oh god, just believe that I don't like you, ok? I don't care about you. I have a problem, and I just don't want to talk about it. I don't see how you could care though, I mean, you don't even know my name!" Dwayne practically shouted at her.

"Well if you would tell me then I would."

"God, I'm Dwayne, does that help anything? I'm still sick, and I still don't give a fuck about you." Melanie looked hurt.

"How could you have sex with me if you don't care about me?"

"How could you let me have sex with you before you found out anything about me? It doesn't seem much like you care either!"

"Oh my god, I let you have your way with me because I care about you, and you are just a perverted boy. You are NOT the man that I thought you were."

"GOOD! Now you don't have to worry about me! I told you, I'm sick. There's nothing that I can do about it, ok?"

"Are you, oh my god, you aren't addicted are you?" Melanie's jaw dropped what seemed to be a couple of feet.

"Yes, I am, alright? Happy now?"

"I really cared about you, I really did."

"Well you know what? I think you only liked me because you wanted what you couldn't have. You wanted someone who didn't want you for the first time in your life, which made you want it even more. I am un-capable of loving someone, I'm sorry." Dwayne walked out angrily, now positive of where he was going.


	8. Chapter 8

Dwayne walked in his front door, and straight to Olive's room. He knocked on the door, even though it was partially open already. "Come in," Olive called to him. Even though it was late, she was still up, on the floor drawing a picture. Dwayne walked in and sat down on the floor next to her, resting his back on her book case. "Dwayne? What happened to your hands? Are you ok?" Olive went over to him and touched the bandages.

"Its nothing, I fell over and got them scraped a little bit. That's not why I'm here. Listen, I have something really important to tell you." Dwayne took Olive's hand and walked her over to the bed they sat down together. "Ok, Richard and mom probably don't want me telling you this right now, but I think that it's important for you to know." Dwayne sighed; this was going to be harder then he though. "Well, my dad is coming up for a little while, and when he leaves, I may go with him, you know, permanently." Dwayne turned away from Olive; he couldn't bear to look at her.

"What! You're going to leave? Why?" Olive was crying, and Dwayne could hear her voice shaking.

"It's complicated, but I'm sick, I'm really sick, and your dad doesn't like me. He doesn't want me around, so I'm going to go somewhere where I can feel loved all of the time." Olive put her arms around Dwayne's neck, virtually strangling him.

"Please don't go, you said you wouldn't leave me here with these people! Take me with you!" Dwayne turned to her, a single tear welling up in his eye.

"I can't Olive, you have to stay with your parents, I will still see you, just not as much. Besides, I am not a good influence on you, really, I'm not. I do all of these bad things that no one knows about. I just- I just have to, I can't stay here anymore, not with Richard." He wanted more then anything to be able to take her with him, but he knew that he couldn't, it just couldn't happen, even if it was the best option.

"Can't your dad just stay here with us?" Olive asked.

"No, he can't. He has a job and a house back in Florida, and he can't just drop all of that. Even if he could it wouldn't help things at all. I still have to go with him." Dwayne took Olive in his arms. She cried and cried, not able to even think about how life would be without Dwayne around. He had always been there for her, no matter how uncaring he had acted, he had always protected her from things, and supported her.

"I don't understand why still. Do you want to go?" she asked. Dwayne couldn't answer that verbally, so he just nodded his head yes. Olive cried harder, and Dwayne pulled her head into his chest, cradling her in his arms.

"I'm sorry Olive, I'm really, really sorry." A few silent tears streamed down his cheeks. Olive and Dwayne lay down, both crying, Olive loudly, Dwayne as softly as possible. Eventually, Olive fell asleep in Dwayne's strong embrace. He lay awake, just holding her, hoping that she would come to understand this.

They were both woken rudely early the next morning by Sheryl rushing in. "OLIVE! Frank says your brother never came home last night, have you talked to him? Have you seen him?" Her eyes rested on Dwayne, who was right next to Olive. "Oh thank god, Dwayne, don't ever do that again. We were so worried!" Sheryl rushed over and hugged him. He pulled away. "Oh please Dwayne, don't be like this, your father is coming in tonight, just be on good behavior for him, ok?"

"It's not him that I have a problem with." Dwayne glared at his mom. "I'm taking Olive to tennis camp later, so she needs to sleep a little longer so that she has enough energy. Let's take this somewhere else." Dwayne stood and walked out of the room, his mother in tow.

"Why didn't you at least check in with Frank or me when you came in?"

"I didn't feel like I needed to, I was here, and I didn't want to talk to anyone." Dwayne shoved his hands in his pockets.

"Here, let's take a walk." Sheryl opened the front door, and Dwayne followed her out of it. "You went and talked to Olive though?"

"Yup. I told her about dad, and everything."

"You did what? Dwayne, you should have left that to me and Richard to tell her when the time was right!"

"Well, I thought that she had a right to know the full truth. Not the padded version that you would have given her, the version that made dad the monster and not me. I wanted her to see this as my decision, and she never would have if you and Richard had told her. You know it." Dwayne turned and stared his mom directly in the eye.

"Well, yes, we would have padded it down a little bit, but Dwayne, she's 7, she's not going to understand you just up and leaving one day, and not coming back."

"You're right, she doesn't understand, but at least she knows its coming and she has more time to let it sink in. Things are going to be a lot different when I leave, and she needs to be able to get ready for them when they come."

"That is true, but you still shouldn't have told her without telling me first. I would like to know when you are telling my daughter things like that. Besides, nothing's final yet, you still may end up staying here with us."

"Don't hold on too tightly to that hope mom. I'm going with dad; you know that you can't win. I don't want you raising Olive's hopes that I'm going to stay, promise me that you wont raise her hopes mom?" Dwayne looked seriously at her.

"I promise, it probably is for the best that we don't give her false hopes, but you know, all of this could have been avoided if you just stayed with us! Olive looks up to you, and she needs you and…" Dwayne cut her off again.

"Mom, do not start on this again, not right now, ok? I am not a good role model for her, I'm sick, ok? Really, really sick." Dwayne yelled at his mother, and the heads of the two other people on the mostly deserted street turned.

"Dwayne? Honey, what do you mean by sick?" Sheryl was worried.

"I have a-a problem, a really bad problem."

"Do you want to talk about? At least tell me what it is, I can try to help."

"I cant, I just can't, but you can ask Uncle Frank, tell him," Dwayne sighed. "Tell him that I told you to ask him, because I think its time that you knew. Also, if you wouldn't mind, will you thank him for me? I don't really feel like talking to him right now, but he'll know what for. He did me a big favor yesterday, and I just got mad at him." Sheryl just looked at him with an open mouth. She knew that this was a big step for her son.

"We should go back now. I need to talk to my brother." They walked back in silence, and Sheryl went to go find Frank. Dwayne stood outside the door to the room they were in, and listened to Sheryl scream when Frank told her, and started crying. Dwayne closed his eyes, and bit down on his lip. He heard Sheryl get up, and he walked away from the door. He hid behind the bathroom door, and watched her emerge, her face stained with tears.


	9. Chapter 9

After Sheryl left, Dwayne walked into his room. Frank was sitting on his cot, looking at his nephew. "Did you really tell her to ask me, or did she figure that there was something wrong and that I knew what on her own?" asked Frank.

"I told her, she needed to know, but I didn't think that I could tell her myself." Dwayne sighed before tumbling onto his own bed, and sitting on it. Frank walked over to him and sat by him on the bed.

"You did the right thing soldier, I'm proud of you." Frank patted him on the back. Dwayne chose to remain silent for a few minutes.

"How did mom take it?" Dwayne asked finally.

"Well, she cried, and she was shocked, but she was glad to find out about it."

"What do you think she's gunna do about it?"

"Well, she'll probably try to find you a therapist, or a doctor of some sort, and she'll probably monitor your whereabouts a bit more. Hey, are you ok?"

"No, well not right now, but I will be…eventually…I think," Dwayne sighed, hoping everything would shape up ok in the end. "Has mom told you yet?"

"Told me what?" Dwayne saw a look of utter confusion on Frank's face.

"That um, well, that I'm leaving." Dwayne choked over the words as they tumbled out of his mouth.

"Leaving where?"

"Here, I'm leaving this place, Albuquerque."

"Well then where are you going to go?"

"I'm going to live with my dad in Florida. He's coming up tonight. He and mom are going to try to work something out so that I can go without a law suit, but if it comes down to it, dad's going to take her to court for custody rights." Frank's facial expression changed drastically. The confusion vanished and turned to a look of blatant shock.

"Are you serious?" Frank stared at him.

"Yeah, I am."

"Why?"

"I just can't do this anymore, I can't live here! Not with Richard."

"Well, the last bit is understandable." Frank nodded.

"I just have to get out of here, out of this miserable little hell hole, do you know what I mean?"

"Well that's all well and good, but what about us? What about me and Olive? I like having you around! You are the only one who even remotely understands me in this house!"

"Then come with me. You can leave now, as long as someone is supervising you, and that would be me." Dwayne stood and looked at Frank seriously.

"Dwayne, you know I can't do that, besides, you don't really want to leave Olive with just Richard and Sheryl, do you?" Dwayne sat back down and gave what his uncle said a great a deal of thought.

"I don't actually know. For the first time in her life, it would be just the three of them. It might actually be good for her." Dwayne spoke slowly; he was still mulling the idea around in his head. "She might be able to get to know her parents, finally, and maybe they would have a shot at becoming a functioning family. Frank, now that Grandpa's gone, you and I are the only ones who don't fit in here, we don't belong here," Dwayne insisted.

"Just out of curiosity, if he wasn't your real grandfather, then why do you refer to him as grandpa?" asked Frank, trying the best to avoid the previous subject.

"I dunno actually. I guess he just treated me like a read grandson. At least he treated me like a real grand son a lot more then Richard treats me like a real son." Dwayne shrugged. This thought had never crossed his mind before, he had always called him grandpa, it just came naturally to him. "Anyway, back to what I said before, we _are _the misfits here, what do you think?"

"I think that both of us leaving at once, especially so soon after Edwin's passing, would just be too much for Olive and Sheryl to handle, although, I'm sure Richard would be over the moon about it." The two of them sat in silence, both thinking about what Dwayne had proposed.

"Well, I'm going to go grab breakfast, do you want to come?" Frank stood.

"No, I don't really feel like facing mom at all, at least not right this second."

"Ok, well do you want me to bring you anything from the kitchen?" Dwayne shook his head no. "Well you have to eat sometime you know."

"Fine, just get me an apple or something then."

"Will do." Frank walked out to the kitchen, returning a couple minutes later with four or five pieces of toast ant two oranges. "Sorry, out of apples, hope this works. Catch." He threw one of the oranges to Dwayne, who caught it perfectly.

"Thanks," he took a shallow bite into the rind, and started peeling it from the tiny pocket that he had made with his teeth. Frank went to work eating his toast, pulling the crusts off as he went.

"So you really are serious about this, aren't you?" Frank looked at Dwayne.

"Yeah, I am, but I am kind of worried about Olive. Promise me that you will take really good care of her when I leave?" Dwayne took a section of his orange and bit in to it, squinting his left eye shut as some of the juice squeezed into it.

"I promise, but don't neglect her, ok? Write a lot, and call a lot. She needs to know that you still love her, that you still care about her."

"Of course I will. Despite how this move makes it sound, I still really, really care for her. She will always be on my mind, I don't think that I could escape it if I wanted to." Dwayne sighed. He knew that he was giving the impression that he didn't care about his family, he did, it just wasn't working for him at the moment.

"I know, she's a great little girl, it's hard not to like her." Frank smiled, and the corners of Dwayne's mouth turned up slightly.

"Well, she is a very special little girl to say the very least. She will be the hardest thing to leave behind." Dwayne sighed. "I just wish that she could come with me. You know, I really love her, but she's the only one here who I care about." Dwayne bowed his head and ran his fingers through his hair, sighing deeply yet again.

"You can't she needs her family, her real family. Whether you know it or not Dwayne, you love your family, Sheryl, and Olive for sure, and your dad. I don't know about Richard, but you have been living with him for the last…" Frank trailed off.

"10 years, Frank, 10 years."

"Right, for the last 10 years of your life, meaning that you two have some kind of understanding, whether it is just weird, or whether it is a friendship, or some other bond, he is in some way your family."

"He's not my fucking family, alright? Not a bit, not even a little bit! We have nothing in common, NOTHING! He hates me; he just wants me out of here so he can have my mom and Olive, a perfect trophy family. There is no bond between us, there is nothing, ok? Just get that in your head, ok?" Dwayne didn't even realize that he was yelling at Frank until the words were out of his mouth. He hoped that he hadn't attracted the attention of anyone else in the family. "I'm sorry; I guess I didn't even realize I was yelling."

"It's ok, you are having a rough time right now, just know that you are strong, you can get through this, and whether you go with your father or stay here with us, you will make the right decision."

"Yeah, well, whatever." Dwayne massaged his forehead briefly.

"Are you sure you are going to be ok?" Frank looked at Dwayne intently. "You don't look to good."

"How so?"

"You are all pale, and you look tired, and weak." Frank told Dwayne what he was seeing, and nothing more.

"Really? Well, I will end up being ok. I'm not sick, I'm just stressed out right now. I…" Dwayne paused. "I just don't really know where to go with all of this."


	10. Chapter 10

_**A/N Ok, so the story goes on! I would like to thank you guys all for reading this far, and I thought that I would just check in with you guys. To the person who keeps reviewing me asking me to put Frank in more, I really am trying! My best friend is actually writing a FrankFic, and its up. Its called Helping Hand or something, its on my favorite story list. You should go check that out for some real Frank stuff. He is just a supporting role in mine. I hope that you keep reading mine though!**_

_**Love,**_

_**Havah**_

Later that day, Dwayne walked Olive to her tennis camp. He attempted to start a conversation with her, but she simply wasn't interested in his light subject small talk. Eventually he just gave up, figuring that she would start talking to him again when she was ready, he just hoped that it would be before his dad got there, he wanted another shot at explaining things to her before they got bad. When they reached the courts, Dwayne went to the viewing area and Olive went out to the courts. He wasn't sure whether Cody would be there or not since it was a Saturday, and he didn't know if Melanie played, he didn't even understand why Olive was playing. The only days she _didn't _have camp were Sundays. Dwayne just sat there, drumming his fingers on the seat, hoping that Cody wouldn't come, even though Melanie did. Eventually, Cody did show up.

"Here." Cody handed him a small white envelope, which Dwayne took, standing to tuck it into the back pocket of his pants.

"Break up with her."

"What!" asked Cody.

"You two just aren't right for each other, you don't have what it takes to make this work, ok?"

"Yeah? Why not? Cody folded his arms over his chest and stared intently at Dwayne.

"Ok, well for one, you are a shitty boyfriend. You're girlfriend is a junkie and you didn't even notice, and you didn't try to help her, you are always late, the list goes on." Dwayne raised his voice. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot, the best part. Cody, she's cheating on you, or at least she's trying to, and not just dating. She's screwing other guys." Cody stared at Dwayne for a moment. Dwayne just stood there with a look that was a mixture of contempt and satisfaction on his face.

"How could I have missed that? She does drugs?" Cody didn't know which questions to ask first. "Who the hell is she cheating on me with?"

"Who she's fucking is her business, talk to her about it. My only part in this is to strongly advise you to get out of this relationship pronto. I'm out of this now, thanks for the compensation, but I can't fucking do this anymore. You two are condemned anyway." Dwayne walked away, leaving Cody in a state of shock. He would spend the remainder of Olive's camp standing outside on his own, thinking about all of this.

A few minutes before her lesson ended, Dwayne walked back into the lobby of the tennis court area to wait for her. When she came out, he hesitated for a moment, and then walked up to her. "Ok, so I was thinking about this for basically the whole time that you were in your camp." Dwayne paused and took a deep breath as they walked. _Ok, here goes, _he thought to himself. "I am really, really sorry, but leaving is the right thing for me." He took her hand. She tried to pull away from him, but his grip was strong and firm, and she soon gave up. "However, I am really, really going to miss you." Dwayne stopped and looked at her. "I will call you at least once a week, and I will write letters also. I promise. The last thing in the world that I want right now is for you to think that I forgot you, or even worse, that I don't care about you as much as I do."

"I know that you care, it's just that I really don't want you to leave." Olive started walking again, pulling Dwayne with her. After a minute she looked up at him. "Hey, what did you do to your hands? I saw they were taped up last night and I meant to ask you, but I guess I forgot to…" Olive trailed off, moving his hand up in the air and running her fingers over the bandage. Dwayne felt pain searing through his whole hand, but he bit his tongue and ignored it.

"I got into a fight, it's nothing important."

"A fight? With who?"

"My bedroom wall." Olive laughed, and Dwayne smiled. It sounded pretty funny when it was put that way. "In case you can't tell, I didn't exactly get the best of it this time, but if it thinks that I will let it win again, it has another thing coming," Dwayne added, trying further to lighten the mood. Olive laughed even harder at the personification of the wall.

"What did the wall ever do to you?" she asked. Dwayne knew what he was thinking, but he couldn't say it, not now, not to Olive. _What did the wall ever do to me? It closed me in, it kept me from going where I wanted when I wanted, but that was only when I was younger. _

"Its stoic," was the reply he gave instead.

"What's stoic mean?" Olive looked confused.

"It means that when you are in pain, you don't show it or make a big deal out of it. Like you don't cry, or say anything about it, you just let it hurt until it stops," Dwayne explained.

"Oh, like you?"

"Sort of, I'm only semi-stoic." Dwayne was thinking about how loud he had been when Melanie was trying to wash the blood off of his hands. "Do you want to come with me and mom to the airport later to pick up my dad?" Olive had never met Dwayne's real father. This was because Dwayne had always gone to visit him, not vice versa.

"Well, I don't know. I really don't want to hate him, but I'm afraid that I will because he is taking you away." Olive looked at her brother.

"Has anyone told you recently, or ever, for that matter, that you are wise far beyond your years?"

"Not directly, no." Olive smiled at her brother, and he returned the gesture.

"Well, you have a good point, but you'll hate him or you wont, you are going to have to meet him anyway. You might as well give yourself as much time as possible to make up your mind about him." Olive thought for another minute before deciding.

"Ok, I guess it wouldn't hurt anyone to come."

"Thanks." Dwayne gave Olive's hand a light squeeze. They got closer and closer to home, talking about music and other trivial matters. "You know what?" Dwayne turned to Olive.

"What?"

"Let's not go home just yet." A mildly mischievous look spread across Dwayne's face.

"Well what we do other then go home?" Olive asked.

"I dunno, go get ice cream or something?" Dwayne grinned. "Are you with me or are you with me?

"I'm with you!" Olive shouted.

"Good." The only times that Dwayne had been fully happy over the last year were the times when he could make Olive happy, this was one of those times, though it killed him to be leaving her. The rough part was, he needed out, and Richard wanted him out. Olive would finally get the chance to know her parents, and to lead a normal life, well, at least once Frank picked up and moved that is. They walked on, Olive happily chattering, and Dwayne just listening.


	11. Chapter 11

"What took you so long?" asked Richard when they got back. Dwayne just walked right by him, not answering. "Dwayne, I asked you a question." He still didn't stop, not feeling in the mood to talk to Richard. "You weren't stopping off at one of your bimbo's houses, where you?" Richard spoke in an accusing manner. Dwayne shook his head. "Then where were you?" Richard grabbed Dwayne's arm.

"Don't fucking touch me!" Dwayne seethed.

"I want to know where my daughter was!"

"Dad, we just went to go get ice cream! Ok? I badgered him into it. Don't hurt him please, it wasn't his fault!" Richard loosened his grip on his step son's arm as Olive spoke. Dwayne began softly massaging the place where Richard had grabbed his arm, looking daggers at Richard.

"Honey, I don't mind. I just wish that Dwayne would have told me when I asked instead of being insolent." Dwayne muttered something inaudible under his breath, and walked back to his room, where he was relived to see Frank was out with Sheryl. Olive followed him in.

"What's a bimbo?" she asked. Dwayne was taken aback by the question.

"I don't know." Dwayne threw his hands up in the air. This was not something that he felt like explaining to his little sister right now.

"Ok, I'm going to go take a bath, are you going to be ok?" she asked this because she had noticed that the content expression that he had been wearing had completely vanished, and was now being replaced by a grim expression.

"I'll be fine, your father just pisses me off sometimes, more often then not right now though," Dwayne said. "But don't base your feelings for him off of mine, he loves you a lot more then he could ever even come close to loving me. You are his kid, and I'm not. It all boils down to that."

"Oh, um, well ok." Olive left, she didn't know what to say to that.

"See ya," he called after her. Dwayne turned on his radio, but tuned it out with his thoughts. A few minutes later, Richard came in.

"Hey, listen I don't want you around my little girl anymore, ok? At least I don't want you to be alone with her. Do you understand me?"

"Why the fuck not? She's my sister!" Dwayne looked Richard angrily in the eye.

"Why? Well, because you are sick!" Dwayne sighed.

"I see that you and my mother had a talk."

"Yes, Sheryl and I did have a little chat, and I tell you, she really, really loves you."

"What makes you say that?"

"She wants to keep you around now more then ever." Richard looked at Dwayne. "Me? I don't want you around Olive. I liked you, I thought you were alright, but this is just so unlike the person that I thought you were. I was just stunned when I found out. I thought you were a winner Dwayne, I really did."

"Well, sorry to say this, but I guess you were wrong." Dwayne shot Richard a look of pure contempt. "But who are you to fucking discipline me like this? Who are you to take away the rights for me to be with my sister?" Dwayne had known that Sheryl would share the information she had received with Richard, but he wished that she hadn't.

"Just don't influence my daughter, ok?" Richard left the room, slamming the door on his way out. _Great. Now there really is no reason whatsoever to stay here, they just took away the one thing that I love about this place! _Dwayne stared at his ceiling angrily. _I want to be able to talk to her! But no, can't do that! I wonder if Richard told my mom he was going to do this. _Dwayne got up and locked the door, he didn't feel like company anymore. Laying down on his bed, he tried his best to remain calm. Normally he would have blown a fuse, but it was only a couple of hours until his dad arrived, and he wanted to be composed for when that happened.

A little later, Dwayne was disturbed from his solitude by the doorknob being jiggled, then a knock on the door. "Dwayne, please open the door, it's Frank." Dwayne remained silent and didn't move. "Do you need to be alone? If you do that's fine, just say something it I'll assume that you've gone out of the window." Dwayne sighed and stood up and unlocked, but did not open the door. When Frank heard the lock click, he opened the door, almost hitting Dwayne in the back as he walked towards his bed. "Ok, what is up with you now? You have been like the poster boy for teenage angst or something ever since we got back from California."

"Richard," was Dwayne's sole response.

"What did he do this time?" asked Frank.

"I don't want to talk about it," Dwayne said. Then after a minute, "are you coming to the airport?"

"Probably, it's been a long time since I saw Steve." Steve was Dwayne's father.

"I think that makes Richard the only one not going."

"Yeah, well that doesn't surprise me. The two have never met before, have they?" Dwayne shook his head no. "Well this should be interesting."

"I hope dad tears Richard's head off of his shoulders." Dwayne spoke in a rather nonchalant manner, which struck Frank as amusing considering the sentence he had just delivered, and chuckled a little bit. He stopped when he saw Dwayne glaring at him.

"Sorry, well, I guess it's almost time to go?"

"Yeah, it is."

"Are you excited?"

"Why would I be excited about this?"

"Well, I thought maybe, since it has been almost a year since you last saw your father."

"Yeah, well, I don't really care."

"Then why do you want to go and live with him so badly?" Frank thought he knew the answer, but he wanted to double check, just make sure that Dwayne wasn't lobbying for this move for the wrong reasons.

"It's not about going there, it's about getting out of here. I need to get away from Richard, I need a father, but he doesn't even want me around anymore."

"Of course he does! He just has, um, an interesting way of showing it to people." Frank stumbled for the right words.

"No, he told me that he doesn't really want me around Olive anymore," Dwayne admitted.

"Why? Because of your, um, well your problem?"

"Pretty much." Dwayne sighed. "But I kind of see his point, I hate to say."

"Don't let him get to you, he's a jerk."

"If you had a little kid would you want her around someone like me? I mean think about it, and be honest." Dwayne folded his arms across his chest.

"Well, honestly, I couldn't say. I obviously don't have a child, so I wouldn't know what it's like. I'm inclined to say that I would want her around you because you are a great guy, but a parent's instincts may be different."

"See? There you go."

"BOYS! OLIVE! COME ON IT'S TIME TO GO!" Sheryl yelled from the hallway.

"COMING SHERYL!" Frank hollered back. Dwayne got up slowly and pulled his shoes on, then he followed Frank out to the hallway where Sheryl and Olive were already standing, waiting for them. Dwayne sighed and muttered under his breath so that Frank was the only one who could hear him.

"Here goes nothing."

"Well, we're all behind you kid, well, except Richard." Frank told Dwayne this as they walked out the front door, and to the semi-repaired Volkswagen bus.

"Yeah, well, let's hope that this goes ok, I'm just a little worried about dad and Richard." They all piled into the bus. Dwayne took one last deep breath, then he got in next to Olive. "Here goes," he said softly to himself. Then Frank revved the engine, and off they went.


	12. Chapter 12

"There he is." Sheryl pointed Steve out to Olive as he approached them from the gate exit.

"Thanks for coming dad." Dwayne acknowledged his father with a very small smile.

"Hey, no problem, are you ok?" Steve looked at his son trying to read his seemingly emotionless expression.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." Dwayne offered his father another small smile.

"And you must be Olive." Steve smiled down at Olive and bent his knees a little so that he was at her eye level. "I have heard so many good things about you. I'm Steven, Steven Caulbury, but you can call me Steve, Dwayne's father." He put out his hand for Olive to shake, and she shook it.

"Hi. It's nice to meet you." Olive smiled back at him, he seemed nice enough to her, but she still didn't want her half brother to go with him.

"Hey there Steve, it's been a long time." Frank shook Steve's hand.

"Well Frank, I'll be damned. Dwayne said you were staying with them, I didn't know if you'd come out or not. How have you been?"

"I've been a lot better lately," Frank smiled. All of the smiling was making Sheryl sick, everyone was so happy to see Steve but her.

"Hello Steve, it's um, well it's been awhile."

"Yeah, it has, hi Sheryl." There was an awkward pause for a moment. "Hey, let's go and get my bags." They all trudged towards the baggage claim in a semi awkward silence, no one really knowing what to say.

"I'll go and brink the car around, Olive, do you want to come?" asked Frank.

"No, I'll-oh yeah, sure." Olive switched her answer mid sentence as she caught the look on Frank's face that basically said to her 'let the three of them talk.' Frank and Olive headed towards the parking lot.

"So Dwayne, things are really getting bad huh? Sheryl told me about your, um, problem." Steve looked at his son.

"Yeah, I guess so." Dwayne wasn't quite sure what to say to that. "I'm trying really hard to fix that problem though."

"Good for you, good for you. When we get back to Florida we can find a really good doctor for you who can help you out."

"We could get him a doctor here too you know."

"Sheryl, stop fighting this. I wouldn't be here if I didn't think that taking Dwayne was the best decision. It's what he wants Sheryl." Steve looked intently at his ex wife. Dwayne's glance flitted between his mother and father. He had heard them fighting many times before, so this was nothing new to him.

"I don't think its best. I think that relocating him right now, at this point in his life, would only confuse things, and ultimately make them worse." Sheryl raised her voice ever so slightly.

"But what does Dwayne think? It's his life, he should have some say in the matter," added Steve in a calmer tone then Sheryl was using.

"He doesn't know what he wants; he isn't old enough to know what he wants yet!"

"Really Sheryl? Because I think that he does." The two of them began to attract attention as Steve joined Sheryl, and raised his voice.

"Let's talk about this later, ok?" Sheryl hissed at Steve.

"Sounds good to me." Dwayne grabbed Steve's bag, and the three of them proceeded to the car waiting/ pick up area where Frank and Olive were waiting with the car. They all piled in, Frank driving, Steve riding up front in the passengers seat, Sheryl and Olive in the middle row, and Dwayne in the back all alone. They drove up to the rental car agency where Steve was supposed to rent a car. "Dwayne, do you want to come with me?" Steve asked as he got out of the Volkswagen bus.

"Yeah, sure. Frank, Olive, I'll see you guys later, ok?" Dwayne hopped out of the car.

"You guys are gonna be alright, right?" asked Frank.

"Yup, we will be just fine, thanks."

"Steve, you have the home telephone number, and my cell number, right? Call us if you aren't going to bring Dwayne straight home.

"I will, we'll see you all back at the house soon." Steve and Dwayne walked into the rental agency office. "Hi, uh we made arrangements for a car?" Steve said to the woman at the desk.

"Can I have your name please?" she asked politely.

"Steven Caulbury."

"Ok, I see you have pre-paid, is that correct?"

"Yes, yes it is."

"Ok, well here are the terms, and the rental agreement, I am going to need you to read and sign both of those for me please." The woman handed Steve the papers, which he looked over carefully before signing them and returning them to the woman. "Ok, great, thank you." The woman input some information into her computer. "Ok, good, and here is the information on your car, the keys to the car, and parking space number that the car is parked in, as well as the space to return the car to. So you are all set to go. Have a lovely day gentlemen." Steve took all of the papers and things that she handed him and thanked her. They walked out of the office and into the parking area to find the car.

"Are you driving yet? I remember you looking over that driving manual last time I saw you." asked Steve.

"Yeah, I've had my permit now for almost seven months, I'm all set to get my license in a couple of months on my birthday."

"Why don't you drive then?" Steve tossed the keys to Dwayne, who caught them with the hands he wasn't using to carry Steve's duffle bag. "And I think that this is us right over here." Both of them looked at the sparkling silver Jetta in front of them.

"Ok." Dwayne pushed a button on the keys and the door unlocked, then he popped the trunk and threw Steve's bag into it. Then he proceeded to the driver's seat and started up the car.

"So, are you sure you are ready for a change to Florida?"

"Yeah, I am. I'm going positively crazy here. It's time for a change I think." Dwayne focused his eyes on the road.

"Well, from what I've seen so far and what I've heard about Richard from you, that's understandable. He isn't hurting you is her?" Steve's eyes were focused on the bruise that Richard had given Dwayne he had grabbed him. The bruise looked vaguely like a handprint.

"Not physically, no. What makes you ask that?"

"I was just wondering you know, since you hate him so much. So is he hurting you emotionally?"

"Sort of I guess, he's mainly just fucking around with my head right now."

"I'm sorry about him. When Sheryl was awarded custody of you initially, we all thought that she had better judgment in men. I apologize if he is wrecking your life." Steve sounded genuinely apologetic.

"It's ok, it's not your fault in any way. Things will get better. Do you really think that mom will take this to court?" Dwayne asked. He felt weird asking it, but he wanted an answer, so he put it out there anyway.

"No, I think that when it all comes down to it, it's going to end up being your choice." Steve said. "I'm all for letting this be your decision. You wrote to me and asked me for help, so I'm just here to help you. If you feel that staying right here in Albuquerque is the right thing to do, then do it. I'm behind you whatever you choose."

"So, are we going to your hotel first or are we heading towards home, because I need to know so that I go the right way."

"Uh, let's go to your house, I need to talk to Sheryl." At Steve's proclamation, Dwayne turned on to his street, and pulled up in front of his house.

"Ok, here we go…this is it." Dwayne turned off the car, and returned the keys to Steve. The two of them walked inside.

"Hey," Frank said as they walked into the front room of the house.

"Do you know if Sheryl is here?" Steve asked.

"Yeah, she is. Sheryl! Steve and Dwayne are back!" Sheryl came out from the hallway when she heard Frank hollering at her.

"Frank, Dwayne, Olive, why don't you guys go to a movie or something, Steve and I need to talk. Richard won't be back until later anyway, so stay out as long as you like." Sheryl explained to them.

"Alright," said Frank, and he, Olive, and Dwayne left Sheryl and Steve alone.

"We need to figure out what we are going to do about this…today," said Steve.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Are we going to take this thing to court or not?"

"I have been thinking about this a lot, and Dwayne has enough problems without a court case on his mind. I really want to keep him here with me, but he's making it very clear that this isn't what he wants, and I want him to be happy…" Sheryl trailed off, not wanting Dwayne to leave, but wanting him to be happy.

"So we let him choose?" asked Steve.

"Yeah, I guess so." Sheryl gave in. For the next hour and a half, they worked on logistics for Dwayne's impending move to Florida. Just as they were wrapping up, the others came home from their outing. They looked from Sheryl, to Steve, and then to each other.

"So, what's going down?" asked Dwayne.

"Frank, Olive, Steven and I need to talk to Dwayne alone." The two of them quickly left the room. "Dwayne, we talked, and we decided that it was up to you. If you go to Florida, you will have to go in just about a week so that you can settle in before school starts," Sheryl explained.

"Ok," Dwayne shrugged, "I'm going to Florida."

"Honey, don't you at least want to think about it?" Sheryl asked.

"What do you think I've been doing for the past week? I just know that Florida is the right choice right now, ok?" Dwayne spoke with conviction.


	13. Chapter 13

A week later, Dwayne's stuff was already to go, some of it was even in transit already. Sheryl was upset about Dwayne's upcoming departure, as was Frank. Richard had been ignoring both Dwayne and Steve, and poor Olive was crushed. Every time that she went to go speak to Dwayne one on one, he had pushed her away, and she didn't know why. While it bothered him to do so, it was what Richard had ordered him to do, so he really had no say in the matter. Steve was back in Florida. He had left two days ago to fix up a room for Dwayne and to receive the boxes of stuff that had already been sent back. Late on the night before his scheduled departure, went to go find Sheryl."Mom, this is for Olive, for anything that she needs." Dwayne handed Sheryl the now crinkled white envelope that Cody had given him.

"What's this?" Sheryl asked, opening it. "Oh god! where did you get this?"

"I was saving it for if I ever needed to escape for a couple of days." Dwayne had only partially lied, he had added 300 dollars of his own money. "But now I think that she needs it more then I do."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, of course I'm sure, just make sure to tell her that it's from me." Dwayne sighed, he would miss Olive.

"I will," Sheryl nodded. "Thanks Dwayne." They parted to go to their own separate rooms. Dwayne settled in for his last night in this room, but found he couldn't sleep. He wanted to go talk to Olive, but Richard would kill him. He waited until two A/M. when he positive that Richard would sleeping, then he walked over to Olive's room and opened her door.

"Hey Olive," he whispered. "Wake up," he shook her gently.

"What is it?" she rolled over and rubbed her eyes sleepily.

"I'm sorry that I haven't been talking to you, but um, Richard didn't want me to." Dwayne took a stab at explaining, but figured Olive wouldn't understand.

"What?" she asked again, this time sitting up.

"Never mind, that's not important, I just wanted to come, and well, let you um, let you know how much I love you." Just saying these words to her chocked Dwayne up. He gulped, trying not to cry.

"I love you too, and I'm really, really going to miss you." A small tear rolled down her face as she spoke.

"Yeah, I know. I'm-I'm gonna miss you too." He hugged her tightly, still fighting back the urge to cry. She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, not sure of what else to do.

"Just remember to call and write a lot, ok?" she wiped her tears.

"I promise, I promise," he smiled sadly at her. "Anyway, you need to get your sleep, and uh, so do I, so I'll see you soon, ok?" He gave her one more squeeze.

"Ok, goodnight." She lay down, wiping her tear stained face again, this time on her sheet. Dwayne retreated back to his room, where Frank lay on his cot, still asleep. He eased into his bed, and then the tears came.

Frank woke to Dwayne's sobs, but he let Dwayne be to cry. Florida was what Dwayne needed, and more the Frank thought about it the more he realized this, but he also knew how hard it was going to be for his nephew to leave Olive. Hearing Dwayne cry reminded him of how close a torn apart family could still be. He thought about how hard it could be to leave someone behind, even when at first thought you had expected it to be simple. Eventually, Frank fell asleep to Dwayne's shaky breathing, once Dwayne had stopped crying, but Dwayne didn't sleep a wink. When Sheryl came in to wake Frank and Dwayne, he rose immediately and got dressed, all before Frank could even pull himself out of bed.

"You ready for this?" asked Frank, pulling a shirt on over his head.

"I don't know, yes and no. I'm ready to be out of here, but I don't think that I'm quite ready to leave Olive." Dwayne stuffed his pajamas into his suitcase so that they wouldn't get left behind.

"Is that why you were so upset last night?"

"Yeah…I'm sorry if I disturbed you with that."

"Don't worry, I understand. You are going to be greatly missed around here Dwayne." Frank spoke with a serious tone. Dwayne didn't answer for he knew it was true. Frank and Olive would miss, and Sheryl most likely would too.

"BOYS! OLIVE! 5 minutes then get your butts out here!" Sheryl called from the front of the hallway. Dwayne took his backpack and hoisted it on to his back. Then he took up his duffle and roller bag, which contained the rest of his stuff, the things that hadn't already been sent, and proceeded to the front room.

"Is the car unlocked?" he asked his mother. "I want to go put my bags in the back.

"No, it's not, here, I'll come and open it for you." They walked outside and popped the trunk to the bus. Dwayne lifted his suitcases and backpack in one by one, then slammed the trunk shut. He and Sheryl walked silently back into the house. Five minutes later, Richard was in the drivers seat with Sheryl riding next to him. Frank sat alone in the middle, and Olive was in the back with Dwayne. She rested her head on Dwayne's shoulder, and he rested his head on to top of her head. The entire car was silent all the way to the airport.

Check in went quicker then anticipated, so Dwayne was left with half an hour for which to say his goodbyes before he had to go through security. "Well, uh, Dwayne, it's been nice having you living with us for the past several years." Richard spoke, unsure of what to say to the boy who hated him for absolutely everything.

"Right," was all Dwayne could say to that. Richard then excused himself to let the rest of the family have an emotional farewell.

"Dwayne, you're my son, and I need you to know that I love you so much, even though it may not always seen like it, ok?" When Sheryl enveloped him in a tearful hug, Dwayne didn't have the heart to push her away.

"I must admit that I will miss having a room mate. Don't forget to call often and come for visits occasionally, ok?" Dwayne nodded.

"I won't forget."

"Don't leave, come on, stay!" Olive went up to him and hugged him tightly. The four of them talked for the next while, until it was just about time for Dwayne to go.

"Alright Dwayne, have a good flight, and enjoy Florida." Frank shook Dwayne's hand.

"Thanks, I will. Oh, and uh, thanks for helping me out so much this year."

"No problem, it was my pleasure." Frank was simply glad that he and Dwayne were parting on good terms after all of the butting in on Dwayne's life he had done in the past weeks.

"Alright honey, do you have everything you need?" Sheryl asked.

"Yeah, and I'll call when I get to dads."

"Ok, good." Sheryl gave him a kiss and a hug, trying to calm her crying.

"I love you Dwayne! I really don't want you to go." Olive was crying too. Dwayne leaned down and gave her one last quick kiss.

"I love you too, but it's time for me to go now." Dwayne was struggling not to cry, he didn't want Olive to think he was weak. They said their final goodbyes, and Dwayne entered the security line. He looked back at Olive a couple of times while he was waiting, and then went through the line, disappearing from his family's view.


	14. Chapter 14

Dwayne loved his father's house. It was quite large, and had both a cook and a maid who lived in the house. He liked his bedroom even more. His father had taken the liberty of putting up all of the posters and decorations from his old room up, as well as stacking all of his books alphabetically by author on the book case, with an entire shelf devoted to Nietzsche.

"So, what do you think?" asked Steve.

"It's incredible," answered Dwayne truthfully.

"Well, most of your things have been unpacked already, but you can unpack your suitcases now, and then come downstairs for a few minutes before you go to bed, ok?" Dwayne nodded, then walked upstairs and got to work.

"Hey, thanks for letting me come to stay," Dwayne said as he entered the kitchen, where his father was sitting drinking coffee, an hour later.

"It's no problem, I think it'll be really nice to have someone living here for a change, especially you." Steve smiled. "You all settled in?"

"Yeah, pretty much, it's a great room. I know I've stayed there before, but now it has a better sense of, well, me in it."

"Good, good, well, you should probably get some sleep, I'm sure it's been a long day." Dwayne did as Steve suggested.

The next week passed by easily, with Dwayne registering for school, then being showed parts of the town that he and his father hadn't visited in the past, and meeting neighbors. However, school was just around the corner.

On the first day, Dwayne walked the five blocks from his house to the nearest public high school, where he would begin his year as a sophomore. He battled his way through English, Biology, Pre-calculus, and German, and eased through weight training, before lunch. No one had said a single word to him other then his teacher's all day, or even acknowledged him in a positive matter. Once in the cafeteria, he sat down at a table all alone, and watched as the rest of the school pointed and talked about him, laughing on occasion. He shrugged it off, this was no different for him then his old school had been.

"Hey." Dwayne looked up, startled, as a girl with blond wavy hair plunked her tray down at his table. He just stared at her for a moment, then his gaze focused on the other three people standing behind her. "I'm Julia Allegretto, and this is my boyfriend, Carson Thomas." She gestured towards the boy with brown hair standing directly behind her. "This is Roxanne Dunn," she pointed at the girl with dark brown hair, "and her girlfriend Crystal Somers," she pointed lastly to a tall girl with red hair.

"You see, we are the resident outcasts at this school, and since no one else would, we felt it our duty to welcome you." Carson squeezed in between Julia and Dwayne. Roxanne and Crystal sat down on the other side of Dwayne. Dwayne was utterly confused. No one had ever been nice to him at school, and he had never given anyone a reason to either.

"What is this, some kind of prank to initiate the new freak with black hair?" Dwayne's first instinct was not to trust them.

"No, not at all," Crystal looked slightly hurt.

"We plan on being your friends, whether you like it or not," added Roxanne.

"Exactly," said Julia. "We just want to be your friends. So, what's your name? now that you know all of us, it's only fair if you introduce yourself."

"Dwayne, Dwayne Caulbury." He was still a little taken aback by this whole thing.

"So where did you transfer from? Roosevelt High?" asked Carson.

"No, Albuquerque, New Mexico."

"Wow, that's quite a move!" said Roxanne, the other three nodded in agreement.

"So Dwayne, what were your friends like at your old school?" asked Carson.

"Except for my half sister, nonexistent."

"What? No friends?" Julia was in shock.

"Nope."

"Why not?" asked Crystal.

"I didn't really talk much, or actually at all last year." The four teens just stared in awe at him. "Um, sorry?" Dwayne didn't know what else to say.

"Oh, you don't need to apologize for not talking, we just can't believe that you actually _didn't _talk at all," put in Roxanne.

"Why didn't you talk?" asked Crystal.

"I took a vow of silence until I got in to the air force academy," Dwayne explained.

"You're going to be in the air force? AWESOME!" exclaimed Carson.

"No, I'm not," Dwayne said, "I'm fucking colorblind."

"Oh god, I'm so sorry!" Roxanne, who was on the other side of him, gave him a hug. Dwayne wasn't used to being hugged by anyone other then Olive and Sheryl, so he just sat there, confused.

"So that's why you started talking again?" asked Julia, sympathetically.

"Yeah, pretty much."

"God, that must have been hard! Giving up speaking until you achieved a dream, and then learning that your dream was impossible to achieve anyway," said Roxanne contemplatively, letting go of Dwayne.

"Yeah, well, I'll just have to find an alternate way to fly," Dwayne said. Carson looked to Julia, a mischievous grin spreading across his face. She nodded, and then they both looked to Roxanne and Crystal, who also nodded. Dwayne was confused again.

"Meet us in the front hall after school," said Crystal.

"Uh, why?" Dwayne asked.

"We have something we want to show you, don't worry, you'll be home by five, Carson has a car," said Julia.

"O…k…, but I'll have to call my dad and let him know."

"Ok, you can use my phone," offered Julia. "Just come to the front hall after the last bell, but for now, lunch is about to end."

"Oh, ok, thanks." Dwayne gulped down the last of his juice just as the bell rang.

"Ok, see you after school." Julia called after him, this was followed by a chorus of three goodbyes.

"Bye," Dwayne echoed. His last two classes went by much easier. Crystal was in his US History class, and she sat next to him, making him feel much more comfortable. Both Carson and Julia were in his health class, and they sat on either side of him.

"I was supposed to take this last year, but…I didn't," Carson explained.

"Carson's a junior, the rest of us are sophomores. I've known him my whole life," clarified Julia.

"Ah," Dwayne said. Then class began and they had to pay attention. After class ended, Dwayne walked with Carson and Julia to the front hall, where they met up with Roxanne and Crystal. Julia handed him her phone and directed him outside to call his father. As he walked off to place his call, the four of them held a conference.

"I like him," said Carson.

"I do too, but he has something bugging him, other then the colorblind thing, and it's something big," added Julia.

"I think he's cute," offered Roxanne, smiling.

"Hey!" Crystal whacked her playfully.

"I'm sorry if I can't help it! I think lot's of people are cute, guys _and _girls, but you are beautiful," Roxanne giggled, and Crystal blushed.

"Yeah, the thing about him is I think we need to be more relaxed around him then we usually are. I don't know if he's ready to handle our full craziness yet," said Crystal.

"Ok, play down the insanity, check," said Roxanne comically, they all smiled.

"He's a nice kid, and he needs good friends, he deserves good friends," said Julia. They saw Dwayne walking back over towards them.

"Ok, I'm good until five," said Dwayne, handing Julia back her phone.

"Good. Lets go!" said Carson, taking out his car keys.

"Uh, one quick question, where are we going exactly?" asked Dwayne.

"It's a surprise," said Julia, Carson, Roxanne and Crystal simultaneously. They started off towards Carson's blue jeep.

"You're in the back with us," said Crystal, jerking her thumb back towards Roxanne. "Julia always rides up front with Carson."

"Right." They threw their backpacks into the trunk of the car, then piled in and drove off.

"Ok, here we are," said Carson as he parked in front of a huge brick building.

"The Museum of Science and Technology?" asked Dwayne, confused. "I don't understand."

"Come on," Roxanne didn't answer him, just tugged his arm. The five of them walked up to the museum's entrance.


	15. Chapter 15

"Ok, here we go," Carson came to a stop at on the third floor of the museum. Dwayne looked around the area.

"Oh my god," he smiled a little bit. "Thanks guys," they had come to their stop just in front of a flight simulator. They all piled in, and Dwayne was, without question, the pilot.

"You'd better not crash this thing," joked Roxanne.

"I'll try my best not to." Dwayne grinned, it felt so right to him to be sitting in the captains seat. As the simulation started, Dwayne took a deep breath, then let go, and for the first time flew his heart out.

"Good job!" Roxanne congratulated him as he landed the "aircraft."

"Thanks," Dwayne felt really happy and fulfilled now.

"Ok, my turn," said Julia excitedly.

"Oh no!" said Carson.

"Don't you listen to him." Julia whacked Carson, and then switched spots with Dwayne. Once all five of them had gone, Dwayne twice, they all tumbled out of the simulator, considerably dizzier then when they had gotten in.

"So, did you enjoy that?" asked Crystal.

"Yeah, I really did, thanks."

"No problem, you looked like you needed it." Carson spoke to Dwayne, then turned to Julia and kissed her.

"Ok, here ya go." Crystal tore off a piece of paper from the notebook that she had been writing in, and gave it to Dwayne, stopping him as he exited the car.

"What's this?" he asked her.

"Contact information," said Crystal. Dwayne looked at the piece of paper in his hand. There was a cell phone number, at least one home telephone number, and an email address for each one of them.

"Oh, thanks." Dwayne got out of the car and pulled his back pack out of the trunk of the car.

"See you tomorrow!" Julia called after him. Dwayne nodded, and then entered his house.

"So, where did you and your friends end up going?" asked Steve when Dwayne walked in his door, and sat down in the living room.

"The Museum of Science and Technology." Dwayne let his backpack slide off of the chair and on to the floor, and then he kicked off his shoes.

"Oh, was that fun?" Steve sounded very interested.

"Yeah, it was amazing. I have got two words for you that sum it up, Flight Simulator," Dwayne smiled.

"Of course! I had forgotten about that," Steve exclaimed. "So you enjoyed that?"

"Absolutely, it was great, I've honestly never done anything quite like it." Dwayne couldn't even begin to describe how it had made him feel.

"Wow, that's incredible." Steve smiled at his son, please that he had enjoyed himself. "On a little bit of a different page, I think I found you a therapist. He wants to see you as soon as possible, so I made an appointment for you right after school tomorrow, meaning that I will pick you up right after classes end, and drive you."

"Oh, ok good," Dwayne was relieved at finally being offered a hand at dealing with all of his psychological problems. The rest of the day was spent getting Steve to sign forms for school, and doing homework. This was followed by eating, and watching 24 on TV.

The next day Dwayne was walking down the hallway after weight training class had ended. "Hey Dwayne, Dwayne Caulbury, wait up." Dwayne turned around to see who was calling his name, and saw Coach Winger, the weight training supervisor/instructor running towards him.

"What?" Dwayne spoke to the coach in his what-do-you-have-to-say-that-better-be-really-really-good tone of voice.

"Have you thought about joining any athletic teams here?" asked his instructor.

"Uh, no." He couldn't be bothered with sports, he simply didn't care about them.

"Oh, well you should definitely give some thought to wrestling. You see, I'm the coach, and well, so far, we are a little on the weak side this year."

"Why would I wrestle?"

"Why? Dwayne, you are bench pressing at least twice what the other guys in your weight training class are, and more then most of the guys on the wrestling team. You could be really great at wrestling."

"I'm just not interested, sorry." Dwayne started to walk away, he wasn't used to being wanted for anything.

"Well, at least think about it, ok?"

"Ok," Dwayne said this simply to get the coach off of his back. He walked away with no intention of joining the team.

Again, he ate lunch with Crystal, Roxanne, Julia, and Carson. They were always happy, or it seemed that way to him. He had never been around people like that, who were happy all of the time. Whenever one of them smiled, so did the rest, it was like it was contagious or something. It didn't make any sense to him at all. "Ok, I just gotta know, why do you guys always seem to be so happy?" he asked, curiosity finally consuming him.

"We aren't always happy, but we usually are, and that's because we surround ourselves with the people who love us, and the people we love, not the people that society wants us to worship, that's what makes us the misfits," explained Roxanne.

"You seem you need the people who care about you around you to tell you how much they care. It gives you a sense of worth, and not a false one either," explained Julia. This conversation had Dwayne thinking for the rest of the say.

"Are you alright?" Steve asked when he picked Dwayne up from school.

"Yeah, I'm just a little tired," Dwayne smiled and got in to the car. They drove to the doctor's office, talking about Dwayne's classes and how he had been approached about wrestling.

"Ok, well I'll be back in an hour to pick you up, then we can go get something to eat, sound good?" Steve parked the car and walked Dwayne up to the office.

"Yeah, sounds great actually." Dwayne went in, waving goodbye to his father as he entered.

"So you must be Dwayne Caulbury, Hello, I'm doctor Winger." Dwayne turned and saw and old man, about 65, behind him sitting at a desk.

"Yes, I am. Hi."

"Make yourself comfortable." The doctor waved Dwayne into his office. "So, your father tells me that you have been having some problems?"

"Pretty much, yeah, did he explain?"

"No, he said that you would tell my yourself if you wanted to."

"Oh, ok. Well, I guess I should probably get that started then." Dwayne shifted in the chair.

"Well I have one question for you first, may I?" asked the doctor, Dwayne nodded. "Do you actually want help Dwayne? Or are you parents making you come here."

"I really want help, you have no idea how much." Dwayne was slightly taken aback by the question.

"Good, that's what I though, now you may begin." Dwayne spent the next 45 minutes explaining virtually everything to Doctor Winger, who seemed to under stand everything, he didn't even bat an eye when Dwayne explained about Britta and Joanna.

"So yeah, and now I'm here." Dwayne finished telling him about leaving Albuquerque.

"Well, that' quite a tale you have young man. Are you adjusting well in Florida?" he asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Do fit in, are you making friends? Do you like it here?"

"Oh, well I don't fit in really, but I am making friends, I have four pretty good friends already, and yeah, I do like it here." Dwayne didn't lie, he didn't have to.

"Well that's great. It usually takes new students a few weeks to make good friends."

"These guys just kind of walked up to me my first day and said 'hey, we're going to be your friends whether you like it or not,' literally." Dwayne smiled, remembering that exact quote.

"How do they compare to your friends back home? Do you miss them?"

"I didn't have any friends back home except for Olive." Dwayne had already explained about Olive to the doctor.

"Oh, well then I would have you say that you are already on the way to recovery."

"Why? How so?"

"Friends, you need friends if you are going to be healthy, it's the way things work Dwayne."

"Yeah, I think I'm learning that actually." They talked about school for the next 5 minutes, then it was time for Dwayne to go.

"Alright Mr. Caulbury, I shall see you next week?" asked Doctor Winger.

"Same time, sure thing." Dwayne left, and walked out to his father's car, feeling so much better about his life.


	16. Chapter 16

The year went on. Dwayne become closer to Roxanne, Crystal, Julia and Carson, they became a sort of family that adopted him in. They spent a lot of time together on the weekends, and sometimes after school. One day a week, Tuesdays, after school, Dwayne would go to see Doctor Winger. Doctor Winger was a huge help to him, explaining that for the past eleven months, Dwayne had been using sex to fill the void in his life that was now being filled by actually having friends. In turn, this is explained instantly to Dwayne why he had had no sexual urges since coming to Florida. Everything was perfect, well, all but one thing. The letters Dwayne was writing to Olive kept getting longer, and longer, as did the replies she sent back. Also, Dwayne was finding it harder and harder to hang up at the end of his and Olive's weekly phone calls.

"Ok, it's about that time of year now!" said Roxanne one day when they were all sitting under a tree in a park eating a picnic-type lunch, a mischievous grin spreading across her face.

"Uh, time of year for what?" asked Dwayne, a little frightened at seeing the all too familiar look on Roxanne's face.

"Well let's see, it's December first, so only two weeks until winter break, which consequently also means only two weeks until the winter dance," explained Roxanne.

"Yeah, so?"

"Ok, someone else take the reigns here, he's _still _impossible, and we've had our fingers in him for almost four months!" said Roxanne, feigning exasperation.

"Well, perhaps that's why he's so impossible," said Julia. "Anyway, what Roxanne was trying to say is that you need a date for the upcoming dance."

"Uh…why?"

"Well, simply my friend, because we, incase you had forgotten, are paired off, so you will be flying completely solo if you don't get a date," threw in Carson.

"Fuck. Chances of me getting a date at this school are nil, trust me."

"Pretty much, but we'll find you someone, don't worry," said Julia.

"How about I just don't go?" suggested Dwayne.

"No, not an option," Crystal interjected. "You've never been to a dance before."

"Wait, no, I've got it!" yelled Roxanne. "He'll take Emilie, duh!"

"Oh my god! How could we have forgotten! Of course he'll take Emilie," Julia said. Dwayne looked at his feet. He had only met Emilie a couple of times, but he liked her ok…as a friend. She was a good friend of Julia's who went to a different school.

"Ok, so Dwayne's taking Emilie, I'm taking Julia, and Roxanne and Crystal, who's taking who this year?" asked Carson, looking at the two of them.

"I totally paid last year, so Roxanne's taking me," said Crystal. Roxanne glared at her playfully before consenting.

"Someone should call Emilie, I think that it might be a good idea to let her in on the fact that she's coming to our dance with Dwayne," said Julia. Carson nodded, took out his phone, dialed the number, then promptly tossed the phone to Dwayne. Dwayne shot a look at Carson that was halfway between 'what the fuck?' and 'I'm so going to kill you for this,' then he took the phone up.

"Hello?...yes, is Emilie there?...Right, of course I know this is your cell phone." Carson, Julia, Crystal, and Roxanne all tried to suppress laughter at Dwayne's last statement. "Uh this is Dwayne, Julia's friend…yeah, that one with the black hair, that's right. Anyway, I was wondering if you wanted to go to our schools winter dance with me…no, you probably don't have a choice considering it's Julia and them," Dwayne laughed a little while waiting for Emilie's response. "Great, well, we will pick you up at, uh, at…" Dwayne looked at Crystal desperately, who mouthed '6:30' to him. "Uh, we'll pick you up at 6:30…yes, that's on the 14th…great…well, bye." Dwayne hung up, then threw the phone back to Carson. "I am going to KILL you for that."

"You do that, and have fun too, because once I'm dead, I'm dead, and then you can't kill me anymore," Carson joked. Dwayne stood up from under the tree where they were sitting and brushed off his pants.

"Well, I have to go. It's Sunday evening, so you know, time to go call Olive." There was understanding between all of them that when Dwayne called Olive he was to be left alone. No one came over. He walked back to his house quickly, contemplating what parts of his week he would tell her about. After he made up his mind, he dialed the number, and was overjoyed to hear her voice on the other end of the line. They spoke for just under an house, talking about their friends, their weeks, and such. When it came time to hang up, it was all Dwayne could do to convince himself to actually say goodbye and hit the off button. Once he did, he held the phone in his hand for a minute, sighed, and then turned it on again. He rifled through all of the papers on the message center before finding the one he was looking for, then he dialed the number on it.

"Speak now or forever hold your peace."

"Hello, Emilie, it's me, Dwayne."

"Oh, hi, how are you?"

"Oh, I'm fine. Uh, I just wanted to sort of apologize for my call earlier, it was a little, well, ride I suppose." Dwayne took the phone and walked up to his room.

"Oh, not, it's fine, Julia or Carson or someone probably dialed the number and handed you the phone before you had a chance to think about it, they do that all of the time," said Emilie's voice on the other line. Dwayne could hear that she was smiling.

"Actually, that is _exactly _what happened. Anyway, you don't have to go to the dance with me if you don't want to. Roxanne was telling me about this guy at your school that you liked, so…" Dwayne trailed off, not really sure what he had been planning to say next.

"Oh, no, it's totally fine, besides, he's not really interested in me…yet. Besides, you and I are just going as friends."

"Oh, absolutely." Dwayne breathed a sigh of relief, glad that she wasn't anymore interested in a relationship with him then he was interested in one with her.

"Great. Hey, can I ask you one kind of weird question?"

"Sure, just remember that I reserve the right to remain silent."

"Ok, this is kind of awkward, but I don't really care. Do you men folk really think it's hot when two girls make out, or is that an urban legend?" For a moment, Dwayne was completely taken aback by Emilie's question.

"Uh, well yeah, I guess so, at least I sort of do. Why?"

"Oh, well, I'm running out of ideas for how to get this guys attention, and I'm willing to take desperate measures. I mean he's _IMPOSSIBLE _to get through to! He's like a brick wall, with an adamantium inlay, and perhaps a Rottweiler guarding it or something."

"Uh, what'd adamantium?"

"It's a metal, think X-Men, anyway, totally not the point."

"Right, I'll have to look that up." Dwayne thought for a moment. "Ok, shot in the dark here, but is he maybe gay?"

"Oh, huh. I dunno." There was a pause, and Dwayne could hear typing coming from Emilie's end of the line. "Nope, negative on the gay."

"How do you know?"

"I asked him," Emilie said like it was nothing.

"You _asked _him?" Dwayne laughed. "Really?"

"Yeah, that's the kind of, sort of, maybe friends that we are, it's not awkward for me to ask him stuff like that."

"Huh, hey, why are you telling me all of this stuff?"

"Honestly? It's because you just so happen to be the person on the other line while this is happening."

"Ok, well I'm gonna leave you to that…"

"Sorry if I freaked you out."

"Oh, no, no, not at all, I actually have to go, dinner time."

"Right, of course. K. bye."

"Bye." They hung up, and Dwayne threw the phone on his bed, laughing at the conversation that he had just had. Then he walked downstairs for dinner, wondering what his first dance was going to be like, but hey, he had two weeks to think about it.


	17. Chapter 17

The next two weeks soared by. The entire school was buzzing as both the dance and winter break drew nearer. As luck would have it, the final day of school before the break just so happened to fall on a Friday the 13th, so Dwayne, Crystal, Roxanne, Carson, and Emilie all went to Julia's house for a scary movie marathon and party. They stayed at Julia's until around 1:30 in the morning, and then Carson and Dwayne went back to Carson's house to sleep while the girls stayed at Julia's. Dwayne went home the next morning, so that he could hang out with his dad until around 5:40 when he began to get ready for the dance.

"Wow! Dwayne looks like he might have actually brushed his hair!" Roxanne joked around as Dwayne got in to Carson's car.

"Shut up," was all Dwayne said in reaction to this, though he had a smile on his face when he delivered the words.

"Dude, we're lucky this dance is casual. Roxanne here may have had a heart attack if you'd worn a suit _and_ brushed your hair!" said Carson as they drove to Emilie's house. They picked her up and quickly drove to the school, where the dance would be held in the adjoining gym and cafeteria area.

"Ready?" Julia said to no one particular when they got out of the car. Emilie's eyes scanned the group. All four of the girls donned skirts of varied lengths, starting with Crystal's quite short skirt, and ending with her own long flowing one. They also had on t-shirts, all with short sleeve's bearing different patterns and words. Carson and Dwayne had both opted for plain colored t-shirts, Carson's was a button up maroon, and Dwayne's was plain black, both boys were wearing khaki pants.

"See you at eleven," Caron said, taking Julia by the hand and leading her on to the already crowded dance floor. Crystal and Roxanne followed them shortly, Roxanne throwing a wink and Dwayne and Emilie before following Crystal. This left Emilie and Dwayne to talk.

"Uh, um, I'm sorry, but I can't dance…" said Dwayne awkwardly.

"Oh, don't worry, I didn't expect that you would," Emilie smiled at him.

"Do you want to go out into the courtyard and talk?" asked Dwayne, not sure of what else to do.

"Sure, why not?" Together they walked outside, and sat down side by side on a bench.

"Nice evening! It's a little warm for December don't you think?" said Emilie.

"Yeah, it reminds me of back home. Olive and I used to sit outside on nights like this. She would look at the stars, and I- well I would sit there and just think."

"If you miss New Mexico so much, then why don't you go back for a visit?" \

"I have a problematic step father; he doesn't really want me around Olive. You see, I have a few indiscretions in my past and…yeah." Dwayne trailed off, not really wanting to go in to all that had been going on.

"Well, then he doesn't know what his own daughter is missing out on. I would kill to have an older brother like you."

"You don't have to tell me things like that just to be nice."

"I'm not! I'm dead serious. You are an amazing person Dwayne, I mean come on, you listen to me crazy rants without complaint." Emilie laughed and Dwayne smiled. They had been talking on the phone a lot during the last couple weeks.

"True, true, but I do have to say that they are amusing rants."

"I'm trying to be serious for once, god! The way you talk about Olive, and Frank, and Albuquerque, it's just, it's just where you belong!"

"What?"

"It's your home, it's where the people you care most about are, meaning that it's where you should be too." Listening to Emilie made Dwayne think. He didn't want her to be right, but he knew that she was.

"Well too bad. I'm here now, and it would take way too much time and energy to relocate again anyway."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night." Emilie shrugged.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Whatever you want to tell yourself, you know that with everyone's help you could easily be out of here and be home by Christmas." Dwayne didn't answer. "Seriously, from talking to you almost daily over the past couple of weeks I can hear it your voice, and from talking to you now, I can see it in your eyes."

"So it's that obvious that I think I made the wrong decision?"

"No, what's obvious is that you needed to come here to realize what you need. You made the right decision, and now it's time to make another one. It's time for you to go home."

"Oh, so now you're trying to get rid of me?" Dwayne joked.

"Absolutely," Emilie nodded and giggled.

"Well, what about you guys?"

"Trust me, Olive needs you more then we do, isn't she living with a victory obsessed father, a smoking mother, and a semi-suicidal uncle?"

"A valid point," Dwayne admitted.

"So you're going?"

"I dunno, maybe, I mean I'd have to get a flight out, and at this time of the year, that's hell."

"Merry Christmas, happy Chanukah, happy Kwanza or whatever you celebrate." Emilie handed Dwayne an envelope.

"How did you- I mean, Whoa." Dwayne didn't know what to say. The envelope contained an airline ticked to Albuquerque, one way.

"We all chipped in some, and your father made the reservation. You have one more week, and you'll be where you belong before Christmas." Emilie smiled at him.

"Thanks." Dwayne leaned over and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"Slow down there Casanova, my heart belongs to another." Emilie laughed.

"Right, of course, Mr. Brick Wall, how could I forget."

"Bingo."

"Well, I think now I could manage a feeble attempt at dancing, if you want to give it a shot." Dwayne said, standing up and offering his arm to Emilie.

"You have to promise me one thing first."

"Uh oh, the catch."

"Keep in touch. We'll miss you around here Mr. Dwayne Caulbury." Emilie stood and accepted the offered arm.

"Oh come on, that's nothing! I'd have a fucking hard time not keeping in touch!"

"Oh, one more thing."

"Yeah?"

"Watch your fucking language please." Dwayne gave Emilie a look, followed by two voices laughing.

"You are such a hypocrite." Dwayne shook his head in mock shame.

"You nailed it." They walked back into the dance, and with laughter, enjoyed the rest of the dance. At eleven, when the dance ended, they walked out to the meeting place where they waited for the other four.

"Well?" asked Carson when all of them gathered around the tree they had agreed to meet at. Somehow, the top two buttons on his shirt had come undone, and both his and Julia's was hair was mussed.

"I'm going home next week."

"We knew you would." Julia said.

"Damn! I'm gonna miss him!" said Roxanne.

"We all will, but he'll stay in touch. Besides, we still have a week, no school, to hang," reasoned Crystal. They walked to Carson's car, and drove home, talking and laughing the whole way.

The next week was spend doing as many different things as possible. His friends helped Dwayne pack up all of his stuff, which he had barely finished unpacking, as well as run about town. They were out or at least at someone's house together until at least 2 AM every morning. Dwayne got to choose what they did, so naturally they went back to the flight simulator. It was a fun week for all, but an heir of sadness hung over it. Dwayne was happy to be going home, though no one aside from Frank new of his return, but Dwayne would miss his friends greatly. While Albuquerque was where he was meant to live, without the lessons he had learned in Florida he may not have ever realized what he really had with his family.

THE END (excluding the coming Epilogue)


	18. Epilogie important to the story

Epilogue

Dwayne went back to Albuquerque, much to the delight of Olive, Frank and Sheryl. Richard learned to like Dwayne again, although it did take a fair deal of time. He never really was able to make too many friends in Albuquerque, but all through high school he kept in close contact with his Floridian friends. Every summer and spring break he went back to visit. When it came time to go to college, he somehow managed to get into Brown University, where he pursued a career in law. Flying was never something he completely gave up on, but he never attempted flight past the simulation in Florida.

Julia and Carson dated all the way through his freshmen year in college, which was the end of her senior year. Then they parted ways mutually to pursue different goals. Julia remained in close contact with Dwayne all the while, as Carson slipped further away. Seven after college, Carson and Julia met again, in Ashland, Oregon. He was immediately taken with her performance as Viola in _Twelfth Night, _as she was now with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and fell in love with her all over again. They were married three months later. Roxanne, Crystal, Dwayne, and Emilie all attended the wedding.

After college, Roxanne and Crystal, still together, took the plunge and moved to Canada. There they applied for, and were granted both citizenship and a marriage license. Never once did they lose contact with either Julia or Dwayne. They adopted five as infants, three girls and two boys, who they proceeded to name Julia , Thaddius, Inara, Heather, and Seamus. Roxanne is a child and teenager psychologist, and Crystal is an anesthesiologist. They remain very happily together, though pointless arguments are on their list of things to do on a daily basis, also a task which they complete most every day.

Emilie never got things to work out with Mr. Brick Wall, but she did get over him eventually. She went to college in Ohio, and got a degree in American History. After that, she taught High School history for four years in a public high school in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She remained in almost daily contact with Dwayne until shortly after Julia's wedding. Then, she realized that she was fed up with America entirely, and left the country. No one is completely sure where she is, but she has stayed in semi-contact with Julia and Roxanne, whom have been assured that she is happily married to some man named Eduardo, and is traveling the world. This information they have passed on to only Dwayne, Crystal, and Carson.

Olive grew up to be a very mature teenage, surprisingly sane, and at 13 lost all of her awkward looks. At 16 she was approached by mail about entering a Miss Teen America Pageant. Upon receiving the invitation, she fell out of her chair laughing, then burned it. She violently pursued a career as a stand up comedian. She received her big break by winning Last Comic Standing, the winning routine: a dramatic retelling of the theft of her grandfather's body from the hospital. Now she has a television show, which many people watch every Wednesday evening, including her family. She also goes on public tours, performing for crowds of people all over the world.

Uncle Frank never did get around to killing himself. He topped the New York Times best seller list for 57 weeks after writing a book entitled How Marcel Proust Ruined My Life. This was followed by a slightly less successful self help book about how to stabilize a dysfunctioning family. While on book tour, he ran into Kirby, the computer guy from the Little Miss Sunshine pageant. Kirby remembered Frank and vice versa. They now lead a happy life together, traveling the US and Canada with Frank's book tour. They are occasionally seen pacifistically protesting beauty pageants for young girls.

Richard and Sheryl managed to successfully fix their marriage after Dwayne returned to Albuquerque to live with them. They are still happily married, and they still live in the same house in Albuquerque that they lived in with Dwayne and Olive. Richard never did get his nine step refuse to lose plan published, though he never did give up on that dream. Sheryl continued to work, and never did learn to cook. She continued to serve the family Dinah's fried chicken almost every night.

Cody and Melanie broke up because neither of them could manage to remain faithful to each other. Shocking everyone, Melanie gave up drugs, and got married to the biggest geek in school because she came to terms with the fact that she had fallen in love with him. Cody became a professional football player for about half a minute. He was arrested for illegal possession of Marijuana, as so many professional football players are, and for driving his car in to a chicken coop while trying to get away from the police. He never got married, and ended up working the rest of his life in a gas station.

Britta left Albuquerque, and became a porn star, which surprised no one. Neither Dwayne nor Joanna ever heard from her again. Joanna however, sought out counsel for her problem. She continued to work at Starbucks for quite some time. She smiled at Dwayne every time he went in there to get something. A few years later they tried going out together for awhile. It simply didn't work out, mainly because it was too awkward after what they had been through. However, they remain in contact as acquaintances, but not exactly friends. They are on each other's Christmas card lists, and share a phone call once every couple of months.

Dwayne is not married yet, but maybe some day he will be. He, Julia, Roxanne, Crystal and Carson, and what they hear of Emilie, are still best friends. Olive and Dwayne are still very close to each other, but are both quite afraid of attempting to raise a family. Neither of them wanted to impose what happened to them on anyone else. Eventually, they may settle down, but for now, both are very much single. This disappoints several boys and girls that they know. Frank and Dwayne are still very, very close. They understand now that they both helped each other out a great deal. How Marcel Proust Ruined My life was dedicated to Dwayne, and the self help book that Frank wrote was dedicated to Olive, who Frank is close with, but not as much so as he is with Dwayne. Steve remarried eventually to a woman whom he worked with. She was a good person, and treated Dwayne well, and with the respect that he deserved when he stayed with them. Frank and Steve also remain quite close friends.

And as for me, Havah Kinny, I continue to write. You can expect another Little Miss Sunshine fanfiction to be posted in a couple of days, it will be a Drama, Romance type thing, though not necessarily with a happy ending. There will also be a comic Little Miss Sunshine one shot, as well as a Girl Next Door fic, an Emperor's Club fic, and possibly an Angels in the Outfield fic. Alright, here are three things that I need to say.

ONE: Some of the characters in my story are based off of people that I know, though some more loosely then others. Julia, Roxanne, and Emilie really exist, though names have been changed, as have some personality traits. Mr. Brick Wall is also a real person, though he has a name, and it is not Brick Wall. I need to thank my friend Tree for inspiring me to write that character in to the story.

TWO: I would like very much to thank Puck and Cons for helping me to write my story, and for laughing with me when I called them at obscene hours with ideas. My friend Erin needs to be thanked for giving me my big ass thesaurus, which I used when writing about half of the story, as the other half was written at my dads house, where I did not bring the thesaurus. Tree was also a huge help, aside from the Brick Wall thing, she talked to me, laughed with, and at me, while I wrote, even though she had not seen Little Miss Sunshine. Also, I need to thank the Magic Hat, onto which I have pinned movie stills from Little Miss Sunshine. Lastly in number two, I need to thank the authors, cast, and crew of Little Miss Sunshine.

THREE: If you have read this story, even if you did not review (honestly I'd just assume you read and enjoy it), I LOVE YOU! SO MUCH! Link me to some fic that you have written, no matter what fandom or genre, because I need some fics to read. Thank you very much.

Love,

Your Author in Training,

Havah Kinny


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